The Darker Side of Bishiworld
by Nyx's Kitten
Summary: When a 15-year-old follows her older sister into Bishiworld 10 months after she left, she finds that not everything is as happy and cheerful as it seems. There is a dark side to every world, including this one...
1. Chapter 1

Well, this is my first story in a long long while. If you want to show up in the story later on, you can email me or leave a review. Thanks!

I do not own anything used in this story except for a few of the characters. Bishiworld was created by Songwind, and the PD bishiball idea is from Lady Demoonica Darkmoon. Go read their stories too!

~*~

Sera yawned as she stretched, settling her laptop more firmly on her lap. She still had two weeks of winter vacation left and there was no one around to talk to. One of her friends was in Las Vegas, one was in Utah, and the other was in Louisiana. Leaving her home alone with her parents. Oh, joy.

Giving her precious laptop a minute to start up, she grabbed her backpack and pulled it over towards her. There wasn't much in it that she needed, but she wanted to clean it out so it would be ready for hiking the next day. Hooking the strap over one knee, she rifled through it absently, dropping textbooks and papers to the floor as she got into her e-mail. Her hands grabbed the water bottles, a map, her iPod, her travel emergency kit, a few pens and a pad of paper, and her favorite extra jacket while she read through her emails. Nothing very interesting, yet.

Not until the last email did she actually pause and read it through, her backpack still balanced on her knee. Her eyebrows rose of their own accord as she read the description, her eyes scanning the words quickly. After several moments of contemplation, she shrugged and clicked the link. _'What the hell? Might turn out to be fun.'_

The screen slowly went black and Sera blinked before her world went the way of the computer, fading to black.

When she woke, there was a strange girl with short blonde hair was bending over her. "Hey. Hey! You awake?"

"Yea," Sera said with a little groan. "Where am I?"

"Oh, a newbie huh? Well, that'll all be explained to you soon enough." The girl offered her a hand up, which Sera took gratefully. She grabbed her backpack and laptop, putting the laptop in the backpack before slinging that over her shoulder. "Come on, let's get you the rest of the way into town."

"So where exactly is 'here'?" Sera asked, looking around curiously. It was nearly dark outside, and several people were wandering around. Her eyes widened as she saw what looked like Duo, followed closely by what looked like Eclipse.

"Bishiworld. That link you clicked on? Well, it's real. In this world, all the bishonen you can think of exist. You can catch them and befriend them, like I have." The girl reached out and snagged a passing Hiei, chasing after the other two. "Hiei, play nicely."

Sera stopped, her eyes wide. "Are you serious?"

"Yup, completely. I'm Shadow, by the way." She held out her hand, grinning at Sera's staggered expression. "You get used to it, girlie. Don't worry."

"Uh… huh…" Sera took her hand and followed her after a moment. "I'm Sera. So where are we going now?"

"Have to get you to orientation. And I have to meet up with my friends, so here ya go." Shadow stopped in front of a building. "Just go inside, someone will explain everything and get you started off. If you want, my friends and I are staying right in this area, so just look around for us or ask for me. Most everyone knows me by now." She grinned and waved. "See ya 'round!"

Sera shook her head incredulously but turned and went inside after a moment's hesitation. The receptionist was just shooing people into a room.

"Are you new too?" she asked, looking flustered.

"Um… Yea," Sera said with a nervous smile.

"Alright, in you go," she said, going back to the desk and tucking her hair back into place.

Sera shook her head slightly as she went into the room, taking a seat quickly. A professor stood in the front of the room, which looked like a small classroom, wearing jeans, a dark blue t-shirt, and a white lab coat over that. His hair was brown streaked with gray.

"Welcome. I am Professor Ashton." There were murmured greetings from the others, but Sera tuned them all out as she discreetly glanced in her backpack to make sure everything was still there. Amazingly, it all was. Bemused, Sera half-listened to the professor explain everything, spending more time taking in the sights and examining the others. She seemed to be one of the youngest of the group, not that she minded. The other youngest person was a boy with short, very messy brown hair and blue eyes hidden behind glasses.

When everyone else stood up, Sera was quick to follow. Blinking, she watched the others receive their Bishiballs after having some blood drawn. When it was her turn, she didn't even blink, just watched him draw the blood in silence before she took the things he handed to her.

"Alright, you all have two weeks to catch your first bishi. If you don't, you'll automatically be sent home. Remember, just tells the shops that you're new and you can get free stuff!" The professor shooed them all out and shut the door behind them.

"Well, why don't we trade numbers?" the boy she'd noticed said. The others muttered their agreements and they all traded numbers, though Sera hung back. The boy turned to her with a smile. "What about you?"

Sera shrugged. "My name's Sera. Yours?"

"Richi." The boy grinned. "Come on, let's go get our free stuff! Although you look like you're already off to a good start." He eyed her backpack with a grin.

Sera chuckled and nodded, taking the lead and going to the nearest store. She and Richi both got new stuff, including several capsules, water bottles, and other necessities. The two had just left when Sera saw Shadow with two other trainers, a small group of bishies around them. The trainer in the middle was laughing, familiar green-gold eyes glinting in the dim light, auburn hair the same shade as Sera's falling over her shoulders, except the ends were dyed black. A green t-shirt and knee-length black shorts with Converse completed the ensemble.

"Sera? What's up?" Richi asked, peering over at her in concern. Sera ignored him, wide eyes fixed on the older girl.

"Belle," she breathed before she took off at a run, jumping on the middle trainer and catching her around the neck, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Immediately two people above her growled and yelled things at her, which she ignored. "My god, Belle, it's really you!!"

"Sera?" the older trainer asked, her eyes wide. At the younger's nod, she hugged the younger tightly. "I thought I'd never see you again! How long have you been here?! Where have you been? How are you?!"

"Enough mystery," a man growled, picking up both girls and setting them on their feet. "Belle, what the Hell is going on?"

"Sorry Nyx," Belle said, though she didn't look at her companion. "Everyone, this is my little sister, Sera. Sera, these are my friends; Shadow, Nyx, and Anna."

"We've met," Shadow said with a grin. "Wow, she does look like you, only shorter and tanner."

"Just because I'm unnaturally pale even with all my hiking doesn't mean you can pick on me," Belle said with an indignant huff.

"Sister, huh?" the man, Nyx, said, looking Sera over. Sera found herself blushing as she looked at him. He was tall, reaching just over 6 feet, with crimson colored eyes, skin as pale as Belle's, and black hair that fell down to his shoulders. A black trench coat draped his frame nicely, his tight black shirt and black leather pants leaving very little to the imagination. "She sort of smells like you."

Belle beamed. "I haven't seen her since I arrived here. So be nice." Her grin fell away as she turned slightly to glare at the other three, a protective arm around Sera. "I'm giving you fair warning now."

"Yea, yea," the other girl, Anna, said. She was a little shorter than Sera's 5'5", looking over at Shadow. "We'll play nicely." Her black hair was long and kept in a ponytail, brown eyes sparkling with humor and mischief. She, too, was wearing black, only she wore skinny jeans, a black tank top with red writing on it in Latin, and black combat boots. "Good luck getting the guys to listen to you, though."

Belle grumbled something before she noticed Richi staring at them. "You can come over, boy, I don't bite." She paused as Richi made his way over. "Well, not you, at any rate."

Sera managed to escape from Belle's grip. "Richi, this is my sister Belle and her friends."

Richi's eyes were wide. "Wow. Did you know she was here?"

Sera shook her head. "No, I didn't. It's… complicated." She glanced at her sister, who smiled and nodded.

"Well, I guess I'll give you a call later," Richi said. "Be sure to call when you get your first bishi. Maybe we can meet up sometime later."

Sera nodded. "You too."

"Alright. See ya." Richi turned and walked away, looking rather confused.

Belle laughed. "Hey, you wanna stay the night with us?" she asked. "We've got hotel rooms already set up, and we can help you get your first bishi, at least."

"Sure," Sera said, eyeing the others carefully. Especially Nyx. He was standing too close to her sister, and she wasn't sure she liked it.

"Come on." Belle took her hand with a smile and led her over to a nice hotel farther into town, going to their rooms. She sat down on one bed while Nyx immediately flopped down on the other. "Ok, so I'm going to help you out a bit."

"With what?" Sera asked, confused. She understood the basic concept of things and how it all worked, so what was her sister getting at?

"The bishiballs that they gave you are normal," Belle explained. "However, you can get them upgraded to PD bishiballs. I'll show you." She set down one of her bishiballs and pressed a button. A door appeared, not attached to anything. Sera got up and walked around it, curious. "You see, what happens is each bishiball becomes it's own room, a pocket dimension, thus the name. When you attach the ball to the belt, it's like attaching it to a hotel, so all your bishies can frolic without disturbing you." She grinned and opened the door. "Oi, Duo. Come meet my sister."

A very familiar hyperactive brunette with a braid longer than hers stepped out of the room. "Sister? You never told me you had a sister."

"Yes I did, you baka. She just got here." Belle grinned. "Oh, Sera, aim for the neck. That's easiest."

Sera grinned and nodded enthusiastically before she tackled Duo the same way she'd tackled her sister, an insanely happy grin on her face. She ignored the others laughing around her and released him when she heard the poor Duo gasping for breath. "Sorry."

"It's fine," he said. "Happens all the time." He grinned cheerily at her and helped her up. "What's your name?"

"Sera," she replied, looking him over with interest. She grabbed the braid swinging behind him, grinning. He blinked before he saw her own auburn braid swinging down almost as long as his.

"Excellent! Now I have someone to play with!" He shot a glare at Belle, who merely smiled.

"He's been pissed at me since I chopped off all my hair," Belle explained.

Sera nodded, remembering when Belle's hair used to be longer than her own. "Hey, wait a second… How come Mom and Dad never talked about you in the ten months you were gone?"

Belle sighed and steered her over to the bed, sitting her down. "Well, you see, once we're here, we don't exist back home. We can only exist in one place at one time. So we can either exist here and stay here for the rest of our lives or we can go back home. But it's a one-way trip back. You don't get second chances. Once you go, you're stuck."

Sera nodded slowly. "So what happens if I don't catch a bishi in two weeks?"

"One way trip." Belle smiled grimly. "Same thing happens if you release all your bishis."

Sera nodded, glad she was already sitting down. "So what's around here?"

"Rurouni Kenshin to the east and north, Gundam Wing a few miles west of here, and lots of forest." Belle grinned.

"Wow. This is still… crazy." Sera shook her head, staring at Duo as he plopped down behind Belle, starting to play with her hair.

"Oh, just wait until you're more used to it," Belle said with a laugh. "Then you'll realize just how crazy the people are in comparison. Take Shadow and Anna for example. They're both completely nuts, but you're still so shocked you haven't realized yet."

Sera nodded absently, watching as her sister relaxed, her eyes closing half-way as Duo played with her hair, braiding parts of it before brushing it all out with his fingers. "You haven't changed much, have you?"

Duo froze and Belle tensed again before she stood, a dark smile playing at the corners of her lips. Sera instinctively moved back. "I've changed more than you'll ever know," Belle said, her voice cool, before she left the room, leaving her belt with the bishiballs on the bed.

Sera looked after her sister and frowned, now concerned. "What happened?" she asked no one in particular.

"She doesn't like to talk about it," Duo said softly, getting up to go after his trainer. "None of us do." He left just as quietly, leaving Sera with Nyx.

"This world isn't always kind," Nyx said, his voice very soft. "Especially not to innocents." That said, he vanished. Didn't even get up from the bed, simply vanished. Sera stared at where he had been before she shook her head.

"Belle, what have you gotten yourself—and me—into?"


	2. Chapter 2

Again, I do not own anything except for a few characters. The idea of Bishiworld is credited to Songwind and the PD balls are the idea of Lady Demoonica Darkmoon. On with the show!

~*~

A knock made Sera look up, frowning slightly when the door opened. Belle poked her head in.

"Hey, we're all going out to dinner. You want to come? You can meet everyone properly," she offered.

"Sure." Sera jumped to her feet and followed her sister down the hallway, glancing around. There was a Yusuke pounding on the door of one room, yelling something about midgets not letting him in. Sera shook her head and hurried to catch up to her sister, who was talking to Nyx and Duo quietly. Down the stairs they went, then down the street and across to a restaurant.

"Alright guys, come on out," Belle said calmly. Five bishis appeared around her, all of them taller than her. "Everyone, this is my little sister Sera. Be nice to her or you'll regret it."

One of them snorted. "I don't do 'nice'," he said, giving Belle a small glare that he obviously didn't mean. Belle rolled her eyes and ordered a table for all nine of them.

"Where are your friends?" Sera asked, glancing around the restaurant. "I don't see them here."

"Yea, I know. I thought I'd let you get used to just my guys first, before I throw you into the hellhole," Belle said with a smile as she sat down, pulling Sera down next to her.

"I resent that," the bishi from earlier said, golden eyes slightly narrowed.

"Sorry Lu," Belle said, turning her gaze on him. "Right. Sera, these are my bishis. You met Duo, that's Yoko as I'm sure you know, Hiei next to him, Duzell next to him, Eclipse, then Lucifer."

Sera stared. "Lucifer?"

"Yes, Lucifer. From Angel Sanctuary. You never liked that series as much, but it is great. So is he, when he's in a good mood." Belle smiled to herself, satisfied, and settled in her seat.

"Um… Wow. You have a copy of the devil wandering around with you."

Lucifer bristled indignantly while the rest of the bishis and Belle all laughed. "I am not the devil!" he hissed. "I am Lucifer Morningstar!"

"Yea yea, we know," Belle said with a grin. "Don't worry about him, Sera. He just acts all offended because he likes attention."

Sera nodded, watching the bishis interact with each other and her sister. Eclipse especially seemed to be watching her sister carefully, though he never said anything. As soon as they ordered, the water hurried away to get their drinks and avoid the group as much as possible.

"So where do you want to go first?" Belle asked, looking over at Sera.

The younger shrugged helplessly. "Um… I guess towards Rurouni Kenshin area."

Belle smiled. "Good choice. Do you want to head over there by yourself or would you like some company?"

"Company," Sera answered immediately. "I haven't seen you in ten months and you expect me _not_ to stay with you?" She snorted. "I couldn't care less if you set Mr. Psycho on me, I'd end up following you."

"Hey, I like that nickname," Duo said with a grin from next to Sera. "Mr. Psycho. You should put that as his nickname, Bellesy."

Belle twitched. "Who put you up to it?"

Duo pointed at Eclipse, who raised his eyebrows.

"It's never Eclipse so stop trying to blame him," Belle said, very calm. "Who was it?"

Duo grinned nervously, nodding to Lucifer. "Sorry Lu."

Lucifer huffed. "Honestly," he muttered. "Can't hire a good servant nowadays." He crossed his arms over his chest, pouting. The pout alone was enough to send Duo, Belle, and Sera into fits of laughter. Nyx raised his eyebrows before shaking his head.

"Belle," Eclipse said softly, reaching across the table to touch her hand gently. Belle instantly sobered and nodded slightly. "Excuse me," he murmured, rising. Sera looked up at him; she hadn't realized just how tall he really was…

"Food!" Duo yelled happily as the food arrived. He dug in as soon as plates were set down.

"You get used to that too," Belle said as she sipped at her soda, not touching her food yet. The rest of the bishis were eating as well, even Duzell.

"Do you have to eat?" Sera asked, looking at Duzell.

"No. But I like to once in a while," he said with a shrug, brushing his hair out of the way again. "I do, however, need blood, if you're a willing donor." He grinned.

"Duzell," Belle said, a warning note in her voice. The vampire pouted but nodded, going back to his food and stealing some of Eclipse's food, since Eclipse wasn't there to defend it.

"Here." A small package dropped into Belle's lap and Eclipse pulled out his seat, smacking Duzell's hand away from his food. Belle smiled warmly at the demon and put something into her mouth, swallowing it quickly before she started eating. Sera's eyes narrowed but she said nothing.

As soon as they were all done eating, Belle paid and led the way back to the hotel. "You should get some sleep, kiddo. We're gonna start traveling tomorrow."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you have 13 days to get your first bishi, and I don't want you anywhere near that deadline without one. Rurouni Kenshin territory isn't too far away, we can make it there by noon if we're out of here by nine, spend the day searching for bishis for you, and come back later tomorrow night to spend the night here again." Belle leaned against the window, Nyx shaking his head and sitting on the bed while her bishis retreated to their balls.

"Wow, you sure are organized," Sera said. "That's different."

Belle shrugged and perched on the windowsill. "Yea, well, you learn to adapt." She was silent while Sera changed into her pajamas.

"So is Nyx a trainer or what?"

"No, he's a half-bishi." Belle smiled faintly. "We think. He's got some demon blood in him, but he's definitely a vampire."

Nyx grinned, showing off pointy fangs. Sera paled slightly.

"Right. So can he go out in the daytime?"

"He can but he doesn't like to."

"I can speak for myself you know," Nyx grumbled.

"Not to my sister you can't," Belle replied cheerfully. "Full vampires, like Eric or Bill—"

"Eric exists here?!" Sera said, sitting bolt-upright on her bed.

"Yes, he does. Shadow and Anna both have one," Belle said. "Anyway, vampires like that cannot go out in the daylight. They tend to have a more normal sleeping habit, but they don't come out during the day unless it's raining or they're indoors. Duzell can come out during the daytime, but we're not really sure why. He just can." The elder shrugged, starting to brush out her hair. "Go to sleep, kid. You'll need it."

Sera rolled her eyes but pulled out her iPod, turning it on and playing a collection of nocturnes to help her go to sleep. Her eyes closed, just for a few moments…

"Sera. Sera, wake up. We have to get going."

Sera blinked a few times to find Belle leaning over her, already up and dressed, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Wah time s'it?" she mumbled.

"8:30. You've got half an hour to get ready. I'll go get some breakfast for us." Belle smiled faintly, ruffled her sister's hair, and left.

Sera groaned as she rolled over out of bed, landing on her feet and trudging into the bathroom. Ten minutes later she came out, dressed and almost ready to go. She paused, looking between her black hi-top Converse, and her new brown hiking boots.

"You might want to take the boots," Belle said as she opened the door one-handed, a tray in her other hand. "Going through forest area is hard enough, the boots will make it easier to squash any opposition." She grinned cheerily.

"…Someone gave you coffee." The accusing stare aimed directly at Belle didn't waver.

"I haven't had it yet," Belle said innocently. "And I got you tea. Now eat. Breakfast is your friend."

"Yea right." The muttered complaints didn't stop Sera from grabbing her tea and a donut, eating quickly before taking more time to enjoy her tea. "Right. Where do we go now?"

"Come on. We're going to go get you a bishi."

Four hours later Eclipse was awake and walking with them, keeping an eye on Belle, while Belle filled Sera in on the bishis that she had met from Rurouni Kenshin.

"…so don't expect them all to act exactly like they do in the show," she was saying. "They do all have their own personality quirks."

Rustling in the bushes ahead made the two stop. Without a word, Eclipse vanished to investigate, his eyes slightly narrowed behind his hood. There was silence, then Eclipse said, "You can come look now."

"Oro…" The second voice was amazingly familiar to Sera, who hurried forward. A broad grin split her face when she saw a Kenshin on the ground with swirly eyes. She quickly threw a bishiball at him. The ball shook once, twice, thrice, click! Her bishidex responded automatically.

"Kenshin Himura, stage Sama. Nickname this bishonen?"

"No nickname," Sera said with a big grin. She picked up the ball. "Kenshin, come on out."

Kenshin reappeared in a brief flash of red light. "It seems I have been caught, that I have," he said thoughtfully, looking around.

Sera grinned and stood in front of him. "Yup. My name's Sera."

Kenshin looked down at her for a few moments. "Well it's very nice to meet you, Sera-dono."

Sera blushed. "You don't have to call me 'miss'."

Kenshin blinked. "But you're my trainer now, correct?"

"Yes…"

"So I will call you Sera-dono."

Sera groaned softly and hung her head. "Okay, fine." She turned when she heard Belle laughing and blinked at the sight of her leaning against Eclipse, laughing with a bright smile.

"Oh you've got it easy, kid," she said. "Duo was my first and he wouldn't leave me alone." Grinning, she looked up at Eclipse. "Still won't, will he?"

Eclipse pursed his lips. "He needs to learn some manners," he muttered, more to himself than to the others.

Sera laughed quietly and shook her head at them. "So what do we do now?" she asked, glancing over at Kenshin.

"Head back to the city," Belle said, as if it were common sense. "You get to know him, do whatever you'd like. My advice is get to know him, make him a friend, and then aim for more. Whatever you do, don't piss him off." She grinned.

Sera nodded, glancing over at Kenshin. He merely shrugged. "We should follow them, that we should," he said, nodding to Eclipse and Belle, who were already walking away. Sera hurried after the two, Kenshin following her with a smile.

"Oi! Guys! Wait up!" Sera managed to catch up to them, only to pause when Eclipse turned to give her a look.

"It's ok, Eclipse," Belle said, sounding tired. "She's fine."

Sera frowned. "What are you talking about? What happened?"

"It's nothing, kid. Don't worry about it. Just Eclipse being overprotective." Belle turned to give her sister a tired smile.

"Uh huh," Sera said, raising her eyebrows. "Sure." She dropped back a bit to walk with Kenshin. After the initial awkwardness, she found herself chatting with him easily. The hours slipped away as they went back to the hotel, where most of Belle's bishis were up and running around. Or wreaking havoc, whichever came more naturally to them.

"You know, all I need to complete this mess is a Bakura," Belle muttered as she sat down on her bed, Eclipse standing next to her. "I'm amazed they haven't killed the TV yet."

Hiei and Yoko were currently fighting over the remote to see who got to pick the next show they watched. Duzell was laughing at the two, while Lucifer contented himself with annoying Nyx.

"Belle! He won't leave me alone!" Nyx said, practically diving on the trainer as soon as she sat down. When she slid off the couch, he paused. "Belle?"

"Fool," Eclipse hissed, bending down and picking up his trainer swiftly.

"I'm fine. Eclipse, put me down." She glared at the demon to emphasize her words. "But I've got good news."

Everyone stopped and looked over at her expectantly, even Sera and Kenshin, who had remained in the doorway.

"Sera got her first bishi!"

Duo cheered. "Alright! Is she coming with us? Can she come with us? Please please please?!?!"

Belle laughed. "That's up to her, Duo. You'd have to ask her, not me."

Duo immediately went over to Sera, turning big brown puppy-dog eyes on her. Kenshin sweatdropped as he watched. "Will you come with us? Oh please?"

"Um… Sure?" Sera asked more than stated. Her only reply was a happy "Yay!" from the sugar-high Duo and being tackled to the ground. Groaning, she looked up at Kenshin, who appeared to be trying not to laugh. "Help?"

Kenshin laughed but managed to get Duo off, helping his trainer up. Soon the three of them were talking and laughing, especially when Duo went to go bother Lucifer. To keep them from being killed, in turn, Belle sent them with some money to get food to bring back. The rest of the evening passed in a happy haze for Sera, despite the worried glances sent at Belle and the fact that Eclipse wouldn't let anyone besides himself and Nyx near her. The last thing Sera thought before she fell asleep was, _'I really think I'll like it here.'_


	3. Chapter 3

It's me again, back for a third chapter. Yay! To my reviewers:

LoneHowl: yes, and you yourself have a Bishiworld fic that you never finished…

Shadow: Don't worry, I've got all my plans. Mwahahahaha!

Lady Demoonica Darkmoon: One of my favorite authors reviewing my story is a very humbling thing, that it is. I really hope you continue to enjoy it!

ShadowShinigami13: Yea, I just like the idea of having two weeks to catch your own bishi. Dunno why, I just do. Don't worry, you'll find out why Eclipse is overprotective… eventually…

Again, I do not own anything except some of the characters. On with the story!

~*~

When Sera woke, she found that Kenshin was sleeping on the floor next to her bed, and the others were spread out around the room. The only two that were awake seemed to be Eclipse and Belle. As soon as she sat up the two turned to look at her.

"Morning sunshine," Belle said with a smile. "Ready to hit the road today?"

"Sure?" Sera frowned slightly. "Where are we going?"

"Well, I heard that a new territory popped up not that long ago, something called Repo: The Genetic Opera." Belle's brows furrowed slightly.

Sera gasped. "Are you serious?!" At her sister's confused nod, she grinned. "I am SO getting a Graverobber!!"

Belle merely laughed quietly. "Of course, dear one," she said with a smile. "Anyway, I wanted to swing by Yu Yu Hakusho to see if I can catch a Kuronue. Yoko's been complaining that Hiei is too short."

Sera nodded eagerly. "Sure!"

"Do you want to travel with my group or would you prefer to just travel on your own?" Belle asked, looking at her. "I told Shadow and Anna my plans already, they're up for it. So you can come with us if you want."

Sera paused for a moment before she nodded. "Sure, I can do that. When are we leaving?"

"Not for a little while yet," Belle said as she stood, stretching. "Anna's practically a vampire herself; she hates to get up in the daytime. Plus I'm letting Nyx sleep in a little so he won't walk into a tree." She snickered while Eclipse smirked.

"Ok, I can tell there's a story behind that. Spill." Sera glared playfully at her sister as she got up and went into the bathroom with her to change. She thought nothing of it; they'd done that all the time back home.

"Well, about two months after Nyx started traveling with me, I got up earlier than he liked so he went back to sleep. The guys and I packed up and I headed off. Nyx woke up after that and followed me, grumbling the entire time. Apparently, he wasn't very awake, since he ran into a tree about twenty minutes after we started walking." Belle snickered and turned her back to change.

Sera laughed, catching a brief glimpse of unfamiliar scars on her sister's pale, smooth skin before a t-shirt concealed them. Shrugging it off, she changed into a pair of jean shorts and a blue t-shirt.

"So what are we doing until we leave?"

"We can go get breakfast, bring something back for the others, and I wanted to get a few things before we left." Belle left the hotel room, leaving Eclipse in charge.

"How do you earn money?" Sera asked curiously.

Belle chuckled. "Well, one way is through battles. That's how I got a lot of mine. Then, of course, there's a relatively new development for your bishidex. If you add a chip to it, then monsters show up and you can have your bishis kill them. Like in a video game, which is where most of the monsters seem to be. They drop money, food items, treasures, all that fun stuff." She opened the door to the continental breakfast for Sera. "Then there are trainers who have set up goodie stalls at tournaments and earn money that way."

"Wow. Certainly no shortage of ways, huh?" Sera smiled as she helped Belle carry trays, stacking them with donuts, bagels, coffee, tea, and a few cups of juice. The two headed back upstairs slowly.

"And, of course, there are odd jobs to do around town, like helping out in stores," Belle said as she opened the door to the hotel room. "So even if you don't like to fight, there are always ways for you to make money."

"That's good," Sera said as she set her tray down. "I don't know how much I'll like battling…"

"Depends on your bishis, as well," Belle said. "For instance, someone who had a Yukina and a Megumi would be much less likely to battle than someone with a Yusuke and a Sano." She smiled to herself as she set down her tray and nodded to Eclipse. The demon walked over and opened a door connecting to the room next door and shut it softly behind him.

"That makes sense." Sera sat down and started to eat a donut. "So who do I have to be prepared to meet once Shadow and Anna wake up?"

"Let's see… Shadow has an Eric, a Calcifer from the book, a Hiei, an Atemu, and a Yami. Anna has a Vlad, an Eric of her own, an Aoshi, and a Roy Mustang." Belle grinned at the stunned look on her sister's face. "I know. Two Erics in one group. They're both troublemakers. But they get into some of the funniest arguments I've ever heard with Nyx."

Sera blinked a few times. "Wow. This is, uh…"

"Crazy. I know. Don't worry, you'll get used to that too." Belle grinned briefly before she finished her half-and-half (half cream and half coffee) and throwing the cup away. "Now to go make sure sleeping beauties get up…" She shrugged and marched over to the door, opening it before shutting it behind her, making no attempt to be quiet. All was silent for a moment before two shrieks split the air. Belle ran back into the room, Eclipse shutting the door behind the two.

"That was foolish," Eclipse said, giving Belle a highly unamused look. "Have you eaten yet?"

"Yes, yes," Belle said, blowing off his concerns. "I'm giving them half an hour to get ready to go."

Eclipse nodded and went over to the trays, where he picked out a bagel and picked at it, watching his trainer.

Sera shook her head. "What'd you do?"

"Dumped water on them," Belle replied with a grin, completely unrepentant. "They'll be up and in here soon to demand my head on a pike."

"Why a pike?"

"Vlad's influenced Anna." Belle shook her head. "I'm going to go check out and pay."

Sera nodded and watched as her sister left again. "Does she ever slow down?"

"Not if she can help it," Eclipse said softly. "There are very few times I've known her to not be busy with one thing or another."

"She wasn't like that before," Sera said with a small frown. "She liked to be lazy."

Eclipse shifted his weight before he went to go open the door for the other two trainers. "Things have changed for her," he said softly. "Help yourselves to breakfast." The last was directed at the two trainers and their bishis, who trailed after them.

"Where is Belle?" Shadow asked half-way through her second donut.

"Checking out," Eclipse said, standing near the window calmly. Shadow's Hiei lounged in the window frame, having refused anything to eat.

"I'm right here," Belle said, shutting the door behind her. "You all ready to go?"

"That was a long time for just checking out," Shadow said suspiciously, looking Belle over. Anna merely shrugged, not having been with them for as long.

"I was picking up a few things," Belle said with a shrug. "Oh, Eclipse, your order was ready, so I picked it up for you." She tossed him a staff made out of some very dark wood and polished black with runes sketched along the sides. A rather unpleasant smile twisted the corners of his lips.

"How d'you 'spect me to sleep with all this noise?" Nyx grumbled from the bed, looking up sleepily. He blinked when he found four trainers looking at him in all his half-naked glory. "Wah?"

"We're leaving today, moron," Belle said, rolling her eyes. "I told you this before."

Nyx growled something but rolled over and got up, slouching into the bathroom to get dressed. When he came out again, a little more awake, the girls were all ready to go. The only bishis still out were Kenshin, Hiei, Eclipse, and Vlad, staying with Sera, Shadow, Belle, and Anna respectively.

"Come on, let's get going," Belle said, leading the way outside. The others followed at a more sedate pace, Nyx bringing up the rear.

"So how old are you?" Shadow asked, taking one side of Sera.

"Just turned fifteen a few months ago," she replied.

"Ha! See, she is the youngest!" Anna said with a victorious smirk.

"Not by a lot," Shadow grumbled but she shrugged. "Ah well. I can always pick on you for being the shortest." She smirked down at Anna.

While Anna fumed silently, Sera laughed, glancing over at Kenshin. He merely smiled and motioned for her to keep walking.

"So where are we going first?"

"Well, we're headed to Yu Yu Hakusho territory, and we're gonna pass Repo on the way there," Shadow said, looking at her electronic map. "Gundam Wing is pretty close to there, along with some others."

Sera nodded and continued walking, noticing the underbrush getting thicker.

"Belle," Anna called. "You're going off the trail."

"I know," Belle replied. "I know a shortcut through this way."

"Sure you do," Anna muttered, scowling. "More like how to make walking harder."

"She has her reasons for avoiding the path, that she does," Kenshin said. "There's a group on it right now, that there is."

"So?" Anna asked stubbornly.

Vlad snorted. "So she is avoiding the group because they have several unfavorable party members," he said, wrinkling his nose. "I can smell them from here."

"What do you mean?" Sera asked, looking up at the tall vampire.

"I can smell another fox demon, a dog demon, a halfling of some sort, and something else that smells even worse." The ex-lord of Wallachia shook his head. "As I said, unfavorable."

"Why?"

"Vamps and demons don't always get along, kid," Nyx said, grinning. "Think of it as throwing a shapeshifter in with Eric."

"Oh." Sera fell silent after that, watching her sister be the trailblazer up ahead of them all. Soon they were forced to fall into a single-file line with the bishis branching off into the forest.

"We should start looking for a place to set up camp," Belle called back to them. "Looks like there's a storm coming in."

"Dammit!" Shadow yelled. "I hate being stuck outdoors in a storm!"

"Shad!" Anna hissed. "You'll scare away everything in a three-mile radius!"

Sera couldn't help but laugh quietly at the two of them bickering like sisters. When she saw Kenshin, he looked amused as well.

As she walked, she let her mind wander, thinking about all the bishis that she would like to catch, all the ones she'd met so far, and all the ones she did not want to run into. It was because of this daydreaming that she ran into her sister. "What--?"

"We're making camp here." The other three exchanged glances at Belle's tone before they shrugged and each of them set up a PD room or two.

"What's for dinner?" Anna asked, plopping down in Duo's room. The girls had all settled down in there, letting their other bishis choose where to spend the night. Eclipse had opted to stay with the girls, while Nyx was rooming with Lucifer. Judging by the evil cackles coming from that room, no one else was disturbing them.

"I'll make ramen," Belle said with a little sigh, venturing out to get a fire going and cook the ramen quickly. As soon as it was done she brought it inside, not even bothering to pour it into bowls. She was half-drenched from the rain.

"Belle," Eclipse said in admonishment, handing her a towel.

"Yea, yea, I know," she muttered. "Here, someone pour this out. The boys can have sandwiches or something." She towel-dried her hair, trying to brush it out quickly. "Duo, help."

Duo obediently brushed out her hair before pulling the front part back and braiding it, leaving the rest loose. "Do I get ramen too?"

"Yes, I suppose so." Belle smiled and shook her head as she handed Duo a bowl. She sat with her back against the bed, talking with the others. When Eclipse handed her something later that night, the other three opened their mouths to ask. One glare from Eclipse sent them scrambling for a different subject.

"Bedtime," Eclipse declared a little past midnight. "At least pretend to go to sleep so we can get going in the morning."

"Yes father," Belle replied dutifully with a grin as she curled up in her sleeping bag. She blinked when she was picked up, sleeping bag and all, and set on Duo's bed.

"No fair," Sera whined, looking at the two. "I wanna cuddle with the bishi!"

"You can glomp him later," Belle said, rolling her eyes at Eclipse. "Besides, this isn't really my choice. I'm just used to sleeping with someone next to me."

Eclipse nodded once before he settled down to watch over the others while they slept. Kenshin laid down next to Sera, giving her a small smile as Anna kicked the door the rest of the way shut to keep the storm out.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, with no one around to see it. The fire was out, completely drenched by the storm, and the only evidence of people were three doors hanging in mid-air by themselves.

The first door opened and Belle emerged, getting Eclipse to help her cook breakfast. By the time everyone else was awake (or woken up), the two had a full breakfast ready for everyone. They ate and talked before leaving, making good time through the forest.

It was near midday before Sera heard something other than the chatter of bishis and trainers. She paused, already in the back of the group, and looked around. Bushes rustled to her left, and a soft voice muttered a curse. Sera crept off the semi-path that Belle was making and into the bushes, looking around for the source. She froze at what she saw.

A Graverobber stood, part of his coat caught on the thorns of a bush. He was swearing in very colorful and inventive language.

Sera very carefully unclipped a bishiball and threw it at the startled bishonen, holding her breath when he was sucked in. The ball shook violently for a few moments before a click announced that he had been caught. Her bishidex reacted almost instantly.

"Name Graverobber, stage Sama. From the movie Repo: The Genetic Opera, the Graverobber is a very unique character. He deals in an illegal pain drug called zydrate, and attempts to seduce Shiloh, one of the main characters. He is very suave and savvy. Nickname bishonen?"

"No nickname," Sera told it before staring at the little black and silver ball in her hand. "Come out, Graverobber."

A short flash of red light later, the Graverobber stood before her, dressed as he was in the movie, complete with streaks of odd-colored hair. Sera stood there staring at him for a moment before…

"I CAUGHT THEM!!" Anna's happy yell made both of them jump. She looked at Graverobber. Graverobber looked at her.

"So. My new trainer, huh?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yup. I'm Sera." She grinned. "I have to admit, you look even cooler in person than you did in the movie."

Graverobber smirked. "Well of course," he said, stepping closer to her. "You expected anything different?"

"Um…" Sera blinked. She hadn't expected him to act like that. "No?"

"SERA!! GET OVER HERE!" Anna yelled. "I CAUGHT A LUIGI AND A PAVI!"

Graverobber sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "This is going to be a long trip…"

"I didn't know you knew Repo," they both heard Belle say.

"Oh yea. It's a great movie!" Anna chirped. "Sera, come on! Pavi and Luigi are making out!"

"WHAT?!" The identical yelp came from both Sera and Graverobber. Sera looked startled while Graverobber looked disappointed that he was missing it. Grabbing her hand, he led the way through the forest over to the other two.

"You lied," he said with a small pout. Pavi and Luigi were both glaring at each other, bickering about whose fault it was that they got caught.

"Hey, it worked." Anna shrugged and looked at him. "A Graverobber, huh? Cool." She grinned at Sera. "Very cool."

Sera looked over at Belle, who merely shook her head. "Come on, all," she said, sounding tired. "We've got a long way to go…"


	4. Chapter 4

Alright everyone, I'm back with another chapter. You can blame two certain people bugging me for more stuff to read.

LoneHowl: Well go find some inspiration woman! Go! Shoo! –waves off to go find inspiration-

PeaceLoveOcelot: Well if you want I can PM or email you a brief description of any characters you don't know and what anime/book/movie they're from. ^^

Anyway, on with the show.

~*~

Three days had passed and they still hadn't gotten to a town. Belle kept the lead, though Eclipse and Nyx stayed with her most of the time, the three of them speaking quietly. Occasionally Sera would see Belle stop to eat something, but she never saw what.

Pavi, Luigi, and Graverobber all got along very well after the initial shock of being caught wore off. Kenshin tended to give them all startled, mistrustful looks as they followed along behind the other three trainers. He especially disliked Pavi, though Graverobber was acceptable as a fellow bishi. Luigi was just nuts.

"Are we almost there?" Anna whined for the fifteenth time that afternoon. Shadow sighed and shook her head, muttering something, while Sera merely sweatdropped.

"Yes," Belle called to them. She paused when Eclipse stopped, his eyes slightly narrowed.

"Keep walking," he said. "The town is only a mile or so away. I will join you soon." He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before he turned and vanished.

"What is up with those two?" Sera muttered to Shadow.

"Hmm? Oh, Eclipse and Belle?" At Sera's nod, Shadow chuckled. "I think he looks at her like a daughter more than anything else. All I know is that before any of us met her, Eclipse helped her out of a tight spot, her and Duo, and they've all been really close ever since. Ever notice how Eclipse never leaves and Duo always stays close to her?"

"I wondered about that," Sera answered softly. "Do you know what happened?"

This time it was Anna that shook her head. "None of them talk about it," she said. "Belle practically refuses to talk about her past at all, except for when she met Nyx. She'll occasionally tell us how she got one or another of her bishis, but that's it. We don't know anything else about her time in Bishiworld."

"So what exactly is Nyx?" Sera asked, looking at the two now walking ahead of them.

"A monster that can hear every word you're all saying," Nyx called over his shoulder. "I suggest you keep your noses out of our business lest you lose them."

Sera gulped, though Anna merely snorted. "You wouldn't dare!" The shortest of them said.

"Wanna bet?" Nyx turned, an evil gleam in his eyes. His fangs were extended, poking out over his lower lip.

"Nyx," Belle said, her voice quiet. The other three trainers could hardly hear her. They did, however, hear Nyx growl a few curses before he slid an arm around Belle's waist.

"He's nuts, that's what he is," Shadow said with a smirk. "Don't worry about him. He's actually an okay guy."

Sera nodded, glancing around. "Any idea where Eclipse went?"

"No, but he passed the three-mile limit." Belle's voice was somewhat pained. "Come on. Let's get to the city so you guys can restock. I'm not going to supply dinner forever."

"What?! You're so mean!" Shadow and Anna both yelped, running up to argue with Belle over the status of who provided dinner. Sera merely smiled and shook her head.

"Sera-dono?"

"Yes, Kenshin?"

"Are you sure you want to stay with these people?" he asked softly, walking next to her silently. "Belle-dono does not seem well."

"I know. But she is my sister, Kenshin. I'm not going to let her leave again." Sera frowned.

"She needs zydrate," Graverobber said from Sera's other side, making her jump.

"No! No zydrate!" Sera said quickly, seeing the gleam in his eyes. "No. Just… No."

Graverobber pouted. "Are you sure you don't want some?" he asked, grinning.

"No," Sera sighed. "I'm sure."

Graverobber shrugged. "Your loss." He went back to talking to Pavi and Luigi. Plotting, really, Sera noted idly as she walked with Kenshin. Something about zydrate and finding an Amber… She stopped listening after that, pulling out her iPod.

"What is that?" Kenshin asked, looking at the device like it was a strange mythical creature.

"This? It's called an iPod," Sera said. "It's an electronic device. It stores music on it so that I can listen to it whenever I want."

Kenshin looked startled. "Really? How does it work?" He started to examine it curiously. "I don't see any instruments, that I don't."

Sera laughed. "It doesn't use instruments. See, the music is already recorded, and the iPod gathers all the recorded music that I have and stores it. That way I can listen to the music and choose what I want to listen to. Here, listen." She turned it on and put one earphone in Kenshin's ear, turning on one of her favorite songs. It was in Japanese, from Howl's Moving Castle. Kenshin jumped, his eyes wide as he listened to the music.

"That is amazing, that it is," he said, looking over at Sera with wide eyes. "I can see why you would treasure this."

Sera smiled and nodded. "Yup. I'd be in trouble without it."

"Why?" Kenshin blinked at her, for the moment looking more like a very confused chibi than anyone had a right to.

"I need music to sleep," Sera admitted after a moment. "If I didn't have my iPod, I'd have to find another way to have music on. I'm sure that would disturb everyone else, and I don't want to do that."

"That's very thoughtful of you, that it is," Kenshin said with a smile. "You're a very sweet lady, Sera-dono, that you are."

Sera blushed redder than a cherry and managed to stutter out a 'thank you' while Graverobber, Luigi, and Pavi all snickered.

"Are you guys coming?" Anna asked, bounding back to them. "We can see the town from here! So hurry up you slowpokes!" She darted back to her Vlad, jumping up on his back with a yell of "Carry me!"

Sera shook her head and took her iPod back, putting it in a pocket. "Come on, we better catch up with them." Kenshin nodded and the two jogged to the rest of the group.

"Do we want our own rooms or shall we double up?" Shadow asked, glancing back at Sera.

"Probably double," Belle said. "We can have some PD rooms set up too so there's enough room for all of us."

Anna nodded. "We'll go get the rooms." She grinned down at them from her place getting a piggy-back ride on Vlad's back. "Go!"

Vlad grumbled something and kept walking towards the nearest hotel, carrying Anna. He didn't actually complain much about carrying her, just the fact that someone had given her sugar. And then set her on him. He was not happy about that particular turn of events.

The others laughed as they watched Vlad plod off with Anna still attached to him. "I think I want to go shopping," Shadow said, looking at Sera. "Wanna come with me, chicketty?"

"Um," was all Sera got to say before Shadow grabbed her arm and dragged her off.

"We'll be back soon!" Shadow called over her shoulder. "Just have someone wait for us in the lobby with the room numbers."

"Will do," Belle called back with a grin.

Sera managed to turn herself around and actually walk with Shadow to the nearest mall. Shadow immediately went to the clothes section, insisting that Sera pick out at least three different outfits. Between the two of them, there was a pile of clothing for themselves and their bishis. Shadow had even snuck in a skirt, which she would one day force Sera to wear.

Shadow and Sera dumped all the bags on Eric and Hiei, who both grumbled but obliged to carry the bags back to the hotel rooms. The instant they could, the two bishis dropped the bags.

"Belle, we're ba—" Shadow stopped mid-word, freezing in the middle of the doorframe. All was silent for a moment, then…

"Oh. My. GOD!!" Shadow launched herself at something in the room, and Sera quickly followed to investigate.

Eclipse had apparently just returned, holding a chibi Raenef in his arms. He glared at Shadow and moved before the trainer could tackle either one.

Belle was staring at the little blonde-haired demon, her eyes almost as wide as the chibi's. "Is that…?"

"Yes. This is my son. Raenef, say hello." Eclipse looked down at the chibi.

"Hi, mommy," the chibi Raenef said with a big smile. "You my mommy now, wight?"

Belle had bite her lip hard to keep from squealing over the boy. As it was, her inner self was mentally screaming "kawaii" over and over again. "I suppose so." She glanced up at Eclipse.

Eclipse nodded. "Go ahead. You have my consent."

Belle gulped and looked at Raenef. "Raenef, I'm going to tap you with this now. You'll be in a different room for a moment, but you'll come right back," she said cautiously, holding up a bishiball.

"Okay!" Raenef gave her a huge, heartbreaking smile. Belle tapped the chibi's arm and he vanished. She quickly skipped the description on her bishidex and said "Nickname Rae." The moment she could, she released Raenef from his ball.

Rae looked up at Eclipse and Belle with big eyes. "Cawwy me, Daddy!" he said, lifting his arms. Eclipse picked the chibi up with a soft smile very rarely seen.

Instantly the four trainers 'aww'ed and squealed over the chibi, all of them wanting to hold him. Only their other bishis forcibly holding them back kept them all from tackling poor Eclipse and Raenef.

"But he's so CUTE!" Anna said in protest to Vlad bodily removing her from the room. Hiei and Eric quickly followed with Shadow, shutting the door between the two rooms.

Sera sat down on the bed, looking at Raenef. He was so adorable! Especially with his hair in a little blonde mop of a ponytail.

Nyx, however, was glaring at Raenef, muttering to himself. "Belle is not 'mommy'," he grumbled.

Eclipse shot him a look. "She is now. That just means that he likes her, Nyx. Calm down, you overprotective demon."

"I'm not all demon," was all Nyx said as he pulled Belle into his arms, settling for nestling his head against her neck instead.

Sera laughed quietly and set up Kenshin's PD room against one wall before setting up Belle's for her, since Nyx wasn't letting her go.

Duo saw the chibi and went over to him. "Aww who's a cute li'l guy?" he cooed, grinning. Rae blinked up at him before his eyes locked onto the long brown braid over Duo's shoulder. He reached out, grabbed and yanked. "OW! Hair! Hair! Yes, that's attached! Help! Owie!"

Sera laughed and walked over to the two, gently detangling Duo's hair from Raenef's fingers. When the Chibi looked about ready to cry, she quickly brushed the end of her braid against his face. Rae blinked then giggled happily.

"I hear the sound of happiness," Lucifer said, emerging from his room. "I swear to myself that if a fairy pops up I'm going to kill it."

Belle laughed. "Oh come on, not all fairies are that bad. Just the ones like Tinkerbelle from Peter Pan."

Lucifer growled. "Those ones are bad enough." He flopped down on the bed next to his trainer, his wings shifting in agitation. Sera stared. Lucifer blinked at her, his wings unfurling part-way. She inched forward slowly, her eyes wide.

"They're really soft," Belle said.

"Hey!" Lucifer yelped, turning to glare at her. "Don't tell her..!" He trailed off as Belle started petting his wing. His shoulders relaxed, his eyes closed half-way, and Belle grinned at Sera. The younger needed no more invitation than that to come over and pet his other wing. Lucifer made a pleased noise before returning his happy silence. At Nyx's pout, Belle laughed softly and instead focused her attention on him, running her hand through his hair.

"How did we end up here?" Duzell asked Eclipse softly, letting Raenef play with his hair.

"I volunteered for it," Eclipse said softly, watching the others with a very faint smile. "And I don't regret it."

"Huh." Duzell shrugged. "I suppose not, even if half of us are nutcases."

"You all are," Belle said with a smile. "But then again, I wouldn't love you all if you weren't."

Yoko grinned. "So does that mean I can finally--?"

"No, Yoko. Down boy." Belle grinned. "Go play with Hiei."

Yoko pouted. "But but but…"

"No buts about it."

"Not even yours?" Yoko ducked just in time to let the book hit the wall. "Pretty please?" A second book hit the wall. "Just a little bit?" The third book hit him in the face, sending him to the floor.

Kenshin stepped over the fallen fox demon to sit next to his trainer. "You look happy, that you do, Sera-dono."

Sera smiled. "I am, Kenshin." Her bishi smiled and stayed there, watching over his trainer.

Lucifer finally managed to shake himself out of being petted and moved away, looking indignant. "You do _not_ pet my wings," he growled. "No more. None. Ever."

Kenshin suppressed a smile. "If he had feathers they'd be ruffled," he muttered in Sera's ear, making her giggle in agreement.

With a huff, the fallen turned and went back to sulking in his room.

"What happened? We heard thunks," Shadow said, poking her head through the doorway.

"Yoko," Belle said, nodding to the form on the floor. "You're not getting anyone's attention, by the way, fox."

Yoko stood up, grumbling. "Damn, that usually works."

"Nope, sorry bud," Belle said, moving so that she was sitting on Nyx's lap instead of on the bed next to him, leaning back against his chest. "You're gonna have to find someone else, and not my sister before you even think about it. You try and you die, buster."

Yoko pouted, his ears drooping, before he went to go complain to Hiei.

Shadow laughed and entered the room. "I swear you could have your own TV show with all the drama these guys produce," she said with a laugh. Her eyes went to the little Raenef first and she silently squealed. "He's so adorable…"

After a moment of silent debate with himself, Eclipse nodded to Shadow and held out the nearly-asleep Raenef to her. Shadow took him carefully, carrying him with a big happy grin. Belle smiled at the sight.

"Sera, I think we're just going to get room service tonight," she said softly. "Go ask Anna if she has any preference."

Sera nodded and slipped into the other room, Kenshin following her like a faithful shadow. There she found Vlad holding back a Roy Mustang to keep him from killing the two brothers, Pavi and Luigi. Yugi and Yami were sitting in front of the TV, while Calcifer had found a nice place to settle without burning anything. Shadow's Hiei was watching everything from the window, while the two Erics were sitting on the bed arguing over whether or not to steal the remote. Aoshi stood against a wall, watching all the rest with a raised eyebrow.

"Where's Anna?"

"Hi!" Anna popped up right in front of Sera, making her jump back into Kenshin, who swiftly steadied her. "What's up?"

"Um, we're getting room service. Anything you want?" Sera blinked as the hyper teen bounded over to the menu, perusing it.

"Don't think so. Just some blood for the vamps," Anna said with a shrug. "Pretty much anything's fine with me. They know what I like." She flopped down on the bed.

Sera nodded and returned to report dutifully to Belle. She paused in the doorway, again. Somehow Belle had ended up on the bottom of a three-person pile, gasping for breath from laughing so hard.

"Mercy!" Belle gasped out. "Eclipse!"

"Alright, that's enough, children," Eclipse said calmly. He pulled Shadow and Duo off Belle and helped her up. "Shall we go order food?"

Belle nodded, looking over at Sera. "What did she say?" Still struggling to catch her breath, Belle managed a smile for her sister.

"Um, she doesn't really care, and she just wanted some blood for the vampires," Sera said after a moment. "I'll go with you guys."

Belle shook her head. "Nah, I'll just have some of the guys go pick it up once it's ready." She walked over to the hotel phone and dialed, speaking softly into the receiver.

Sera sat down on her bed, watching everyone else. Yoko, Hiei, Duzell, and Duo had all settled in front of the TV and were watching some show. Everyone else was spread out across the rooms, including a few PD rooms. Someone had thought to get a TV and put it in one room, meaning another group was watching the TV in there. Sera sighed and shook her head. It was complete pandemonium.

"Are you feeling alright, Sera-dono?" Kenshin asked quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Yea, I'm fine," Sera said with a small smile. "I'm just not used to all this. Plus this complete and utter chaos."

Kenshin laughed softly. "I understand, that I do," he said softly. "Growing up, my brothers and sisters were always very loud, that they were." He smiled.

Sera smiled and stayed there, getting used to the madness and the noise. Two of Belle's bishis and the two Erics went to go get their food once it was all done, returning minutes later with platters full of food. Sera shook her head. The tab for the hotel was going to be huge…

Even more chaos ensued when people tried to get what they wanted, and Sera and Kenshin decided to wait for most of the others to get food before even trying to get over there. Everyone quickly settled down again to stuff their faces (or eat more slowly) and chat or watch TV. As people finished, they set their plates down on the trays and drifted away into groups to talk or watch TV or cluster around the chibi Raenef.

It was nearly 10 before Sera even noticed the time. She blinked, amazed. Somehow she'd managed to lose track of the time in the midst of the chaos and, she had to admit, she was having fun. She smiled and settled down to watch Yugi and Yami try to beat each other at Duel Monsters again.

"Belle? Belle!"

The startled yell from Nyx caught everyone's attention. Eclipse went from one side of the room to the other, catching Belle before she slid off the bed. Instantly questions were being hurled at him and Nyx and Sera stood, walking over to her sister quickly, worried.

"Don't worry," Eclipse said, loudly enough so that the others could hear. "She just hasn't been sleeping well. I'm afraid all the excitement of today has worn her out." He turned a glare on the room that dared anyone to protest. No one did. Satisfied, he gently tucked Belle into bed before turning dark eyes on Sera. "Nothing to worry about, Sera. She's fine."

Sera nodded, somehow unconvinced, and went back to her bed. Most people decided to continue with their activities, but Duo retired to sitting next to Belle's bed.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep with all the noise, Sera retreated into Kenshin's PD room. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all, that I don't," Kenshin said with a smile. "Are you going to listen to your… your…" he waved his hand, at a loss for the word.

Despite herself, Sera giggled. "My iPod?"

"Yes!" Kenshin smiled.

Sera nodded. "Yes, I am. Do you want to listen too?"

Kenshin paused before he nodded. Still smiling, Sera pulled out her laptop and plugged it into a conveniently-placed outlet in the wall before she hooked up her iPod to her laptop. She scrolled through her music before selecting a CD she thought Kenshin would like and turned it on. The two settled down, Sera in her sleeping bag on the floor, Kenshin sitting on the end of the bed listening to the soothing music. The last thing Sera remembered was falling asleep to Howl's Moving Castle and warm, strong arms picking her up and setting her somewhere much softer than the floor…


	5. Chapter 5

First of all, to all my lovely reviewers: Thank you all! –hands out free chocolate-

LoneHowl: Yea yea. Maybe this can be inspiration for yours, ne?

PeaceLoveOcelot: Don't worry, things get even woes. –maniacal cackle- ahem. Anyway. I hope you continue to enjoy!

LDD: I love Kenshin! He's one of my favorites. Now I just have to find a happy medium between too much plot movement and not enough…

I do not own anything at all used in this story except for a few characters.

~*~

Sera groaned softly as she awoke on a bed. She blinked. _'I didn't fall asleep on a bed. So why am I on one now?'_ Sitting up and looking around, she found Kenshin asleep on the floor and shook her head with a small smile. _'Well that explains a lot.'_

After sliding out of his bed and going to the bathroom to get dressed and brush her hair, Sera went to check on the others. It was nine, a little later than she usually woke up, but Belle was already awake.

"Morning!" the elder said with a smile. "How are you?"

"Fine," Sera said, going over to sit next to her sister. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Belle said with a small smile. "I was just overtired is all. But I'm fine now." She stood. "How about we take whoever's awake and go get some breakfast?"

Sera nodded. "Sure." She poked her head into the PD room and nearly hit Kenshin. "Ack! Sorry!"

"It's fine, Sera-dono," Kenshin said with a smile. "I heard you two talking, that I did."

"We were just discussing breakfast. Do you want to come, Kenshin?" Belle said, walking over to them. Sera noticed that she wasn't as pale as she had been, nor did she look as tired.

"Of course," Kenshin said with a smile. "I have to keep Sera-dono out of trouble, that I do."

"Kenshin!" Sera yelped, mortified. "I do not get into trouble."

"That's what you think," Belle snickered. "You get into a lot of trouble, kiddo."

Sera stuck out her tongue and followed her back down to the breakfast room, once again gathering up trays of food for the rest of the group.

"Why are we doing this again?" she asked as the three of them trooped back upstairs.

"Because you're too nice, Kenshin follows you, and I want to get out and looking before noon." Belle grinned over at her sister, setting the tray down and opening the door between the rooms. "Oi! Lazy idiots! Food!" She slammed the door again before anyone could protest.

"Why do you always have to make so much noise…?" Nyx grumbled, though he got up anyway.

"Because I want to go catch a bishi," Belle replied with a grin. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. 'Clipse is coming with us."

Nyx nodded and flopped back down, going to sleep almost immediately. Sera blinked while Belle laughed.

"Ready, kid?"

"Sure," Sera said, glancing over at Kenshin. "You coming too?"

"That I am." Kenshin smiled. "Should we go get Graverobber?"

Sera and Belle exchanged looks. "I guess so. Come on, let's go drag him out here." Sera went over to one of the PD rooms and checked inside. Pavi, Luigi, and Graverobber were all asleep in there. Walking over quickly, she grabbed her bishi and started dragging him back into the other room.

"What?" Graverobber muttered. "I'm sleepy."

"Your fault for staying up all night," Sera said. "Come on, we're going out."

"Again?" He visibly deflated. "We're leaving?"

"No, no," Sera said quickly as she followed Belle outside. "We're just going on a little day trip. I want to see if I can catch another bishi and Belle's looking for a Kuronue."

"Oh, ok." Graverobber grinned and draped his arm over Sera's shoulders.

"I don't know what you're thinking of doing but you better not do it," Belle said to Graverobber without turning. "Otherwise I'll have to remove certain body parts."

Graverobber paled slightly and removed his arm, instead just walking next to Sera. "So where exactly are we?"

"Territory called Yu Yu Hakusho," Belle said. "It's an anime."

Graverobber nodded; that last bit he understood at least. "How long will we be here?"

"As long as it takes," Belle said, her voice cool.

Grumbling, the drug dealer nodded and continued walking, deciding to go pester Kenshin instead. Sera bit back a smile as she watched; Kenshin was rather confused but kept his patience very well.

"So what do you think so far?" Belle asked, walking next to Sera.

"I like it here. It's not as hurried as back home." Sera smiled. "Plus there are lots of woods."

Belle nodded. "Indeed, it is beautiful here," she said softly. "But appearances can be very deceiving."

Sera frowned. "What happened to you?" she asked softly. "You were never like this before…"

"Not everyone who comes here is nice," Belle said, her voice quiet and sad. "I've been hurt here, Sera. I don't want you to go through the same thing."

"Then why are you still here?" Sera asked. "If something bad happened, why are you still trying to make it here?"

"Because this place is better than home ever was," Belle said, her voice soft and vehement. "I will never go back home if I have a choice."

Sera frowned but nodded. "Okay. So what happened?"

Belle's eyes narrowed, seeming more gold than green in the light filtering through the trees. "I hope you never find out." She walked faster, Eclipse going to walk next to her instantly. Raenef was hanging onto the back of his father's cloak, walking behind him and staring up at the two with big innocent eyes.

"Are you alright, Sera-dono?"

Sera jumped at the voice from slightly behind her. "Yes, Kenshin. I'm alright." She turned to give him a wan smile.

"Come on, 'Rama," a voice said from somewhere above them and off to the side. "I hear people."

"No harm ever came from looking," a soft, melodious voice answered. "Go back and tell Hi-kun we're here."

Sera froze and glanced at Kenshin. He nodded slowly, understanding she wished him to be quiet. Graverobber stopped too, watching the two curiously. Kenshin led the way into the bushes, Sera following him quickly. Graverobber stayed where he was, watching with interest.

Kenshin moved to the side, his hand on the hilt of his reverse-blade sword, his eyes narrowed. Sera peeked around him to see a Kurama starting to climb a tree. She quickly threw a bishiball, blinking at his surprised yelp as he was sucked into the ball. It shook twice before falling still, the click breaking the silence in the air.

Sera grinned and danced in place before she let Kurama out, quickly turning off the bishidex's information. Before Kurama could even get a good look at his new trainer, Sera glomped him and they both went down.

"Oro… Sera-dono…" Kenshin said, watching the two. "You might want to let him go, that you might…"

Sera quickly let go of Kurama. "Sorry," she said with a sheepish grin. "I'm Sera." She stood and offered him a hand.

Kurama looked at her for a moment before he took her hand, pulling himself up. "It's alright." He glanced at the other two bishis. "Are they both with you, as well?" Even caught by surprise Kurama was ever the diplomat.

"Yes. This is Kenshin and this is Graverobber." Sera grinned. "My sister's around here somewhere too…"

"Graverobber?" Kenshin blinked. "That's… an unusual name…"

Sera shrugged. "Yea, well, it works." She turned and started to follow the trail Belle and Eclipse had left. "Belle! Hey, Belle!"

There was no response from the woods. Her sister had disappeared.

Sera frowned and turned to look at the three bishis now watching her curiously. "I guess she went ahead," she said, without conviction. "Anyway, what do you think? Should we go after her or go back to the hotel?" She looked at Kenshin.

Kenshin considered carefully, walking over to stand in front of his trainer. "We will follow the tracks for as far as they go, that we will," he said at last. "If we don't find her by then, we can turn around and go back, that we can." He smiled reassuringly at Sera.

Sera nodded. "Alright. Come on, guys. We've got a sister to find." She turned and started walking, following the footsteps.

"Sera-dono?"

"Yes Kenshin?"

"They went the other way, that they did."

Sera blushed. "I knew that!" She turned and practically ran farther into the forest, following the footsteps the correct way this time. Graverobber and Kurama both laughed while Kenshin merely smiled and followed his trainer to make sure she didn't get into any trouble.

Three hours later, they still hadn't found anything. The footsteps kept going, but Belle and Eclipse were nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe we should turn back, that we should," Kenshin suggested.

Sera sighed. "Alright," she agreed after a moment. "It's gonna take a long time to get back though…"

Kurama watched his new trainer with some amusement. "I can carry you," he offered. "We can run back and I'll carry you."

Sera blushed. "No, that's fine," she said. "I can run for myself."

Kurama raised his eyebrows. "Yes, but running when you're already tired would be foolish," he said softly.

Sera shrugged. "I can make it," she said, turning around and starting to jog back the way they'd come from. The three males exchanged exasperated looks before going after her.

Sera lasted an hour running on her own before she got tired. "I'm… not used… to running…" she grumbled, panting as she did.

"Get on," Kurama said, crouching in front of her. "I don't mind."

Sera stared at him before she sighed and gave in, managing to jump up on his back so he was carrying her. "You sure?"

Kurama laughed. "Yusuke is heavier than you," he said with a grin before he started running. Sera squeaked and clung to him, surprised at how fast he was able to go, even while carrying her. Kenshin and Graverobber quickly followed the two.

"Where were you guys?" Shadow asked half an hour later, standing outside the hotel.

"Out getting him," Sera said with a smile, nodding to Kurama.

"Oh sweet!" Shadow grinned as she looked Kurama over. "So where's Belle?"

Sera glanced over at Kenshin. "We… we don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"I mean I don't know where she went. She said she was going to find a Kuronue, but she left while I was catching him." Sera frowned.

"Ow! Dammit Anna!" Both trainers grinned at each other as they heard Vlad yelling and swearing.

"So what are we doing tonight?" Anna asked.

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky," Shadow said. "Try and take over the world!"

Sera and Anna exchanged looks before they both burst out laughing. Shadow's Hiei sighed and shook his head, as if exasperated.

"Want to head over to the gym?" Anna suggested. "If Belle's not going to keep feeding us, we'd better get some money…"

"Sure," Shadow said. "You want to come too, Sera? You can just train if you want, or you can go up against the gym leader."

Sera nodded. "Sure, why not." She followed the other two to the gym, walking with Kenshin while Kurama went to go talk to Hiei. Graverobber stayed on Sera's other side, deciding that she was more fun than the bickering brothers, Pavi and Luigi.

Two hours passed after they had signed in to the gym. Shadow and Anna had both challenged the gym leader and defeated him, but Sera hadn't stayed to watch. She'd taken her three into a training room and was sitting against a wall, watching them train. Graverobber was pretty useless, so Kurama was teaching him how to fight. In case he ever had to. Sera was pretty sure he'd run before he fought, but stranger things had happened.

The door to the training room opened and Belle entered with Nyx and Eclipse following her. Lucifer followed those two in, looking rather unhappy.

"Where have you been?" Sera asked, not getting up from her place against the wall.

Belle shrugged, sitting next to her. "Had to go a little ways to find a Kuronue, but he got away. Tomorrow I'll go track him down." She smiled. "Sorry to make you worry."

Sera shrugged. "It's fine." She looked over at Kurama, who had miraculously kept his patience in teaching Graverobber to fight. "I caught a Kurama."

"Excellent." Belle smiled. "Hey Eclipse, why don't you go help out? Looks like Graverobber would be next to useless if he ever had to fight."

Sera laughed; those had been her thoughts exactly. "Did you see the other two?"

"Yea." Belle grimaced. "They were eating without us. Oh well." She shrugged. "Apparently they'd just won against the leader here, so I wasn't about to burst their bubbles."

Sera nodded her understanding as she watched Eclipse tower over both her bishis. Kenshin had returned to her side when Lucifer sauntered over.

"That's okay. I'm not that hungry. The guys probably are, but I'm fine." Sera shrugged, glancing over at Kenshin.

"Well, I'm gonna head out early tomorrow," Belle said after several moments of silence. "So don't worry if you wake up and I'm not there. Hopefully I'll be back before sundown tomorrow with a Kuronue."

Sera nodded. "Hopefully. That would be cool. I always thought it would be cool to get Yoko and Kuronue and some of the others together, just to see what they do."

Belle laughed. "Well Yoko and Hiei get along alright, though they have a tendency to try to sneak off and steal things. I suspect with Kuronue it'll be even worse."

"And poor Kurama's going to be dragged along to get them out of trouble." Sera chuckled, shaking her head and brushing her hair back out of her way. "Poor guy."

"Don't be too concerned with him," Belle said with a grin. "He'll probably get into just as much trouble as they do."

Belle stood after a few minutes, looking down at Sera. "I'm going to grab some dinner. Wanna come with?"

"No thanks," Sera said. "I'm fine. You want to go, Kenshin?"

Kenshin shrugged, though a faint blush colored his cheeks when his stomach growled. Sera laughed quietly.

"Go on. I'll just go back to the hotel room and watch Repo or something." Sera stood and called, "Kurama, Graverobber. Dinner if you want it."

Graverobber immediately walked over to the two trainers, with Eclipse and Kurama following more sedately.

"I'll see you all back at the hotel," Sera said, leaving the training room and heading back down the street to the hotel. She had at least an hour to kill and she knew it. So she pulled out her laptop and turned it on. Her fingers paused over the keys when a gentle knock resounded from the door.

"Who is it?" Sera called, getting up and going over to the door.

"It's us," Kurama said. Sera opened the door to see her three standing there with food from the restaurant downstairs. She blinked when the three walked in, setting the food on a table.

"We thought we'd have a private party," Graverobber said with a smirk, pulling a chair over while Kurama sat on a bed. Kenshin sat on the floor.

Sera smiled despite herself. "That does sound nice, actually," she said, sitting between Kenshin and Kurama. The four ended up talking for the next hour and a half until Belle returned, and then they only stopped to greet the older trainer before they went back to their heated discussion of how best to steal something.

Belle smiled to herself and sat on her bed, mentally checking all her bishis. Most were with her, but Yoko and Hiei were a little over a mile away, their distance tugging gently at the back of her mind. Not uncomfortable yet, but it would get there if they went much farther.

Sighing softly, she took a shower before announcing that the bathroom was open. As expected, it was instant pandemonium, from which she quickly scooped chibi Rae out of the way and set him off to the side. Eclipse glowered at the others but, in the end, Lucifer procured the bathroom first, much to the disappointment of the others.

Belle sighed when the two demons pushed just past a mile and a half, turning the gentle tugging into an insistent nagging. "Idiots," she muttered, leaning back against the headboard and letting Raenef play with her things, keeping an eye on him. This poor Rae was likely to grow up rather corrupted…

Sera yawned near midnight. The instant she did, Kenshin and Kurama started shooing people off to their own PD rooms to talk, insisting that she needed sleep. Sera flamed red at the attention while Graverobber merely looked highly amused. Sera felt a brief tug somewhere in the back of her mind when Graverobber went back to his bishiball, then again with Kurama. Kenshin stayed out, settling next to her on the floor. Still red, Sera hid under the covers to shuck her jeans off and put in the ear buds for her iPod. She fell asleep to soft talking and Chopin.


	6. Chapter 6

Another chapter! This one's longer and took longer to get out… I had a Disney hangover yesterday… .

LDD: Yes, now I just have to keep that standard up for every chapter. Hopefully it'll work. Hopefully.

Shadow: Of course my dear. And I don't think so. We don't need you strung out on zydrate.

LoneHowl: Mwahahahahaha! I am just that awesome, you know.

PeaceLoveOcelot: Yea, you're discussing a lot of things that have to do with character traits and tweaks. I've already got Belle and Sera all laid out, and I could go into all the little details why one doesn't ask and one doesn't tell, but I'll get there in the story eventually.

I don't own anything except a few characters.

~*~

Happy giggles woke Sera in the morning. She blinked herself awake to find Kurama playing with Raenef, a very disgruntled Eclipse watching over the two of them.

"Good morning Sera!" Kurama said with a smile, looking up from tickling Rae.

"Morning," Sera said, sitting up. "Did Belle leave?"

Eclipse nodded, grumbling under his breath.

"Without you?" Sera blinked as she headed towards the bathroom to change.

"She left me behind to watch after Raenef," Eclipse said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I didn't want her to leave Duo or someone to watch him, so she made me stay instead." He growled softly.

Sera nodded and beat a hasty retreat to the bathroom, not wanting to anger the demon any more. After changing, she emerged and said that the bathroom was free. Graverobber smirked at her as he passed, waggling his eyebrows. Sera rolled her eyes and went over to watch Rae.

Eclipse watched his trainer's sister, his eyes slightly narrowed. The girl was not normal, just as his trainer was not normal. They both had the same attractive feeling to them, an energy that drew in everyone around them. He could feel it; he saw it in his fellow bishis as well. The faint glow surrounding Sera was similar to that of the one around his trainer, but Sera's was pure, bright silver and gold mingling. Belle's was not, and for that he grieved.

"Are you hungry, Sera-dono?" Kenshin asked.

"Sort of." Sera shrugged.

"We brought breakfast up earlier," Kurama said with a smile.

"How long have you all been up?" Sera asked as she went over to get a donut.

"A few hours. Since Belle got up and left," Graverobber said, emerging from the bathroom. "You're cute when you sleep."

Sera blushed while Kurama rolled his eyes and Kenshin merely chuckled quietly.

"So what are we doing today?" Graverobber asked, plopping himself down next to Sera and watching Kurama play with Rae.

"Probably go back to the gym," Sera said. "I could use some money, and you guys can train. Eclipse would you mind…?"

"Of course not," Eclipse said softly. "Your second needs work anyway." He smirked at Graverobber's outraged expression.

Sera chuckled and shook her head, getting up. "I'm going to get properly dressed and take a shower. Hopefully you'll all be ready to go by the time I'm done." At the muttered agreements, she slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Just in case.

Forty five minutes later all five of them were going to the gym, Eclipse carrying Raenef and glaring at every trainer who so much as looked at Rae the wrong way. The receptionist at the gym raised her eyebrows but merely nodded when Sera explained that Eclipse was his father.

Setting Rae with Sera to watch, Eclipse and Kurama took Graverobber off to one side to teach him how to fight. Kenshin watched them for a little while before starting his own training.

Sera looked up when another trainer entered the gym. This trainer appeared older, about as old as Shadow, perhaps. Brown hair was kept in a ponytail to her mid-back, while glasses obscured brown eyes. A loose and comfortable-looking t-shirt and jeans combo adorned her frame, finished by sandals.

"Hey, we're not alone this time," one of the woman's bishis said. Sera thought his name was Vash but she wasn't sure.

Standing to introduce herself, Sera smiled sweetly, letting Rae hide behind her leg. "Hi. I'm Sera. I'm still pretty new here."

"I'm Sandy." She smiled and looked over at the group of bishis watching them curiously. "Are those all yours?"

"No, just Kenshin, Kurama, and Graverobber. Eclipse and Rae here belong to my sister, but they opted to come with me this morning." Sera smiled.

"Chibi Rae?" Sandy looked at the chibi now only half-hiding behind Sera. "He sure is cute…"

Sera smiled and nodded. "He is. He's very sweet. Eclipse is apparently his father." She paused when she saw the other two bishis following the girl. "Hughes…"

Maes Hughes looked up, blinking. "Eh?"

Gracia Hughes also looked over at the younger trainer and smiled.

"You like Hughes?" Sandy asked, blinking.

"Yea. I cried when I read the part in the manga." Sera looked over at Sandy to see her nodding with a small smile.

Hughes sighed and pushed his glasses farther up his nose. "Honestly, I'm still alive. See?" He waved his arms around to prove his point.

Sera couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, I can see that." She looked over at Sandy again. "Are you interested in a battle?"

Sandy shrugged. "Sure. Vash?"

Vash sighed. "I hate fighting…" he whined, though he moved in front of his trainer anyway. "I consent to fight for my trainer."

"I consent to fight for Sera," Kurama said before Sera could ask. He shot her a dazzling smile, the one that made fangirls everywhere squeal and swoon, before he turned to face his opponent. Sera did not squeal and swoon, but she did go red.

Vash and Kurama circled each other for several moments, watching each other. Kurama made the first move, lunging forward to punch Vash. The older, bigger bishonen yelped and dodged, running away.

"Why do we have to fight?!" he asked as he ran. "I hate fighting!"

Kurama stopped and hung his head for a moment before moving across the room to intercept Vash, sticking out his foot and tripping the red-coated bishi. He blinked when the other didn't get up, merely producing a white hanky from somewhere and waving it.

Sera laughed. "I think that was one of the most amusing things I've ever seen," she said, smiling.

Vash stood and walked back over to Sandy quite calmly, grumbling something about fighting and everyone should be peaceful. Kurama merely chuckled and went over to beat up on Graverobber some more.

"Here," Sandy said, holding out some cash.

"I really didn't do anything to deserve that," Sera said, shaking her head. "It really wasn't much of a fight."

Sandy shook her head. "You're new, right? Take it."

Sera paused before she walked over, taking the cash. "Thanks." She smiled.

"Maybe I'll see you around," Sandy said as she turned to leave. "I'll be in town for a few days."

"Yea, maybe we'll meet up sometime," Sera said. "It was nice meeting you."

Sandy merely waved before she and her three bishis left, the door swinging shut behind them softly.

"Well that was interesting," Kurama said, shaking his head. "I don't think I've ever had an easier fight. Except perhaps once…" He trailed off and shook his head.

"That was good for you, that it was, Sera-dono," Kenshin said with a smile.

Sera blinked. "What do you mean?"

"That was a good fight for you to start with, that it was," Kenshin said. "This way you didn't have to worry or stress about it."

Sera smiled at her first bishi. "You're right. I don't think it'll be so hard from now on."

"If Graverobber will ever learn," Eclipse said from close behind Sera. The younger trainer jumped. "My apologies if I startled you. Belle is… farther away than she should be." He frowned. Belle hadn't gone farther than two miles, but Eclipse felt it acutely. He felt oddly alone, separated from his trainer. So he substituted the best he could, standing close to his son and the younger trainer. She had almost as much appeal as his own trainer. Almost, but not quite.

"Don't worry about it," Sera said. "I'll get used to it eventually." She smiled faintly and stuffed her money in her pocket. "Do you guys want to continue training or what?"

"We'll take over training Graverobber," Kenshin said. "Perhaps Eclipse can teach you some self-defense, that he can." He'd noticed that the older bishonen was closer to his trainer than usual.

While her three bishis wandered away across the gym, Sera turned to Eclipse expectantly. He nodded and set Rae off to the side, making the chibi sit and watch while he tried to teach Sera.

"No, you keep your thumb outside the fist unless you want to break it," Eclipse said. "Try not to use your knuckles yet. You'll bruise them."

"Now you warn me," Sera grumbled, shaking out her hand.

"Let me see," Eclipse said with a soft sight. He examined her hand and muttered something before releasing her. "You'll be alright. Let's try again and hope you never have to punch anyone for a while."

Sera glared and punched his hand extra hard. Eclipse actually cracked a smile at the force behind the punch and nodded his approval. The two continued practicing under the careful watch of her three.

"Belle's back," Eclipse said a little after lunch time. None of them had felt like stopping to eat.

"She is?" Sera looked up at Eclipse, pink in the face from all the exercise.

"Yes." Eclipse walked over and picked up Raenef swiftly, oddly relieved that his trainer was back. "I am going to check in with her. I suggest you all eat something." With that said, he left the gym silently and swiftly.

"He's strange, that he is," Kenshin said, scratching his head.

"Nah, he's just protective and attached to Belle," Sera said with a smile. "Her ex used to be like that too."

"What?" Kurama looked over at Sera.

"Belle had a boyfriend once, like a year and a half ago. He used to want to be with her all the time." Sera shrugged. "Belle thought it was cute for a while, then he got too clingy and they ended up mutually deciding to break up. They were cute while they lasted."

"Have you ever had a lover?" Graverobber asked.

"No!" Sera blushed. "Never. Or a boyfriend."

Kurama laughed softly and walked over to her, picking her up bridal style. "What shall we have for lunch today, Sera dear?"

"Put me down!" Sera flamed red as a pomegranate, struggling and flailing in Kurama's arms. He merely laughed and hoisted her up higher, making her squeak.

"That place looks good," Graverobber said, already walking across the street without them.

Kenshin chuckled as he walked with Kurama across the street, deftly avoiding being hit in the head by Sera's flailing feet. "You should put her down once we get there, that you should."

"I will." Kurama grinned. "Until then, I'm having fun." He ducked a fist aimed at his face. "Except for that part."

Kenshin chuckled and went over to the table Graverobber had gotten for them, pulling out a chair. Kurama dumped their bright red trainer into the chair and sat across from her, grinning.

"Hmph." Sera crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "You're mean."

"Oh well." Kurama grinned and looked at the menu. Kenshin shook his head and merely smiled.

A waiter wandered over to them and they were all about to order when Sera stood up, her eyes wide.

"Sera? What is it?" Kenshin asked, standing up quickly.

"Belle," Sera muttered. "There's something… something going on…" She frowned and moved away from the table. "She's in trouble." She turned and darted from the restaurant, running back to the hotel.

Eclipse was the first one she found. He and Raenef were standing in the hallway, looking shaken.

"What? What is it?" Sera asked, skidding to a halt and nearly running into the demon.

"You don't want to know," he said, his voice a little unsteady. "_I_ didn't want to know." He shivered.

'_What could have freaked out Eclipse?!'_ Sera thought as she threw the door open. She froze at what she saw.

Belle was laying on the bed curled up, though she didn't seem hurt. Duzell, Lucifer, and Duo were all hiding behind Belle. Like Sera, they were watching the show in the corner with a sort of mortified, astonished fascination. Yoko was the only one completely visible, with his back to the three. A wing that Sera vaguely remembered belonged to Kuronue poked out from the corner, and spiky black hair identified that Hiei was over there too.

Sera swallowed and backed away, shutting the door very very quietly, her eyes wide. She looked over just as her three bishis reached her.

"What? What happened?" Kurama asked urgently, taking her shoulders.

"Sera-dono? Are you alright?" Kenshin asked, peering at her worriedly.

"Just don't go in there," Sera said, her face still ashen. "That was just… wow."

"What?" Kurama and Kenshin looked confused. Graverobber strode over to the door and opened it, poking his head inside.

"Oh, come on. Luigi, Pavi, and I are hotter than that," he said, snorting and shutting the door.

"What?!" Kurama went over and peered inside before he started laughing. "Oh wow. I never thought that Kuronue would get caught and end up in that situation."

Sera shook her head. "Someone stop the world, I want to get off," she muttered.

"Sera-dono?" Kenshin moved in front of her. "What's wrong? Sera-dono!"

Sera shook her head, stumbling as the world tilted and spun violently, much more than it normally did. Her knees buckled and the floor rushed up to meet her before the world went black.


	7. Chapter 7

So the chapters are probably going to start taking a little longer to get out. Senior year teachers like to assign lots of homework and projects and things.

LDD: Yes, I had a lot of fun with this chapter. Hopefully this will live up to my ever-growing expectations and yours. ^_^

PeaceLoveOcelot: I know, I just love making you all so confused. Don't worry, everyone's fine. Sort of. Kinda. Maybe. And HUGHES!!! Must glomp Hughes!!

Shadow: Uh huh, right. I might give you guys a few more clues… or maybe not. Mwahahahahaha!

ShadowShinigami13: I understand perfectly, I've been pretty busy myself. And Disney hangovers are not fun, for anyone who's not spent an entire day at Disneyland then had to go to school the next morning. Anyway, I love True Blood! Actually, I like the books much better, but that's just me. If you haven't read them, you should. They are all good. And they're different from True Blood.

LoneHowl: I'll explain it to you when you're older, young one. –grin-

I do not own anything except a few characters. On with the show!

~*~

Sera woke hours later with a pounding headache. She groaned and rolled over, blinking at the soft, warm, squishy something next to her. What the heck? Beds were not warm and squishy, generally. She started poking at the soft, warm, squishy something until it groaned and swatted her hand away. Poke. Swat. Poke. Swat. What the crap?

"Sera-dono?" Kenshin muttered as he sat up on Sera's other side. "What're you doing…?"

"What's this?" Sera pointed at the lump next to her, unable to see since none of the lights were on.

"Huh?" Kenshin leaned over her to peer at the soft, warm, squishy something before he cracked a grin. "Kurama-san."

"Wah?" Sera blinked a few times. "When did this happen?"

"Last night, that it did," Kenshin said with a smile. "You passed out."

"Oh." Sera could feel herself blushing and really hoped Kenshin couldn't see that.

"How do you feel?" A cool hand pressed against her forehead, registering her temperature, before going to the pulse point in her neck.

"Like someone's taking a sledge hammer to the inside of my skull, actually," Sera said, groping around for her bag. "I need ibuprofen."

"What's that?" Kenshin peered at me from the darkness, apparently able to see Sera just fine. She sighed in aggravation.

"Painkiller. Where's my bag?" She sat up the rest of the way, trying to look around.

"You have nothing good in here," Graverobber grumbled from near her feet. "Just a bunch of legal things."

"You expect me to have illegal stuff in my bag?" Sera asked, scooting over to snatch her bag back, searching for a capsule with ibuprofen in it.

"Most people have at least some little illegal thing with them," Graverobber said calmly. At Sera's glare, he backed away a few feet before settling down again.

Sera found the ibuprofen and a bottle of water after several moments of searching and took two, chasing them down with some water. "Where are we, anyway?"

"In my PD room, that we are," Kenshin said with a smile. "The two beds in the hotel room were taken, that they were."

"Oh. Well thanks." Sera grinned over at Kenshin before she settled back in her sleeping bag. "Should I get more sleep or get up…?"

"You should go back to sleep, that you should," Kenshin said softly. "It's a long time until dawn yet."

Sera nodded sleepily and rolled over on her side, cuddling down in her sleeping bag. "Night, then, Kenshin."

"Good night, Sera-dono," Kenshin said softly, watching as his trainer slipped off to sleep again. He sighed softly and looked over at his two companions, finding them both asleep. A small smile graced his features before he settled down again, deciding to get some rest himself before the new day.

_Sera found herself floating above the world, weightless, invisible, and (unfortunately) immobile. She looked down as Belle entered a room. Her sister was disheveled, her hair tangled and matted, dried blood under her fingernails and down one side of her face. Dark circles lined her eyes, and bruises adorned her knuckles and fingers. However, something was missing. It took Sera several moments to realize that her sister was alone, completely alone. Her bishi belt was nowhere to be seen. She looked odd without it somehow._

_A man entered the room and walked over to Belle, pinning her down with her face and stomach pressed against a mattress before he took a blood sample from her arm. Releasing her quickly, he left just as suddenly as he'd come, ignoring Belle's yells and screams._

_After several minutes of struggling, Belle sank to the floor, starting to sob into her knees, seemingly trying to ignore the TV positioned in the top corner of her room. Sera looked over at it and found, to her shock, a similar cell with all of Belle's bishis in it. None of them looked happy, and Eclipse and Duo both seemed especially upset, pacing and occasionally yelling, though Sera couldn't hear what they said. The others were all fidgety, unable to sit still, all of them looking upset about something. Sera noticed bruises and cuts on some of them, as if they'd gotten into fights…_

"Sera!"

The younger trainer jumped, her eyes flying open. Kurama stood over her, looking perplexed.

"Wake up. Belle said this is our last day in town," Kurama said. "So we're going to get some supplies, and Belle said you'd want to get some more clothes." He wrinkled his nose.

Sera nodded and yawned quietly, getting up sleepily. "Is there any tea around?" she mumbled.

Kurama chuckled and left the PD room, coming back with a steaming cup and a selection of tea bags. "Take your pick."

Sera grabbed a bag of mint tea and dropped it in the cup before giving Kurama a sleepy smile. "Are the others up?"

"I believe Belle is in the process of getting Anna and Shadow up," Kurama replied. "Nyx is awake but glaring at anything that comes too close, and Graverobber and Kenshin are both awake."

Sera nodded, mentally checking on the two. Kenshin was close by, probably just outside the room, while Graverobber was a little farther away. In the other room perhaps? Sera shook her head and left the PD room, going to get all her things packed up with some help from Kenshin and Kurama.

"You ready to go, kid?" Belle asked, entering the room and leaving the connecting door open.

"Just about, yea," Sera replied, looking up just in time to see Anna slam a pillow into Pavi's face. She grinned and put her laptop in her backpack last before she picked it up. "Now I'm ready."

Belle nodded. "If you could take my hoard down and get them all fed, I have to finish getting up the lazy ones." She pretended to roll up her sleeves (though she was wearing a short-sleeved shirt) and marched back into the other room.

Sera rolled her eyes and nodded, heading out into the hallway to see Eclipse had already rounded up all of Belle's bishis. The ones that were awake, anyway. "Come on. Food time."

"Are you on the menu?" Lucifer asked, smirking as his wings shifted against his back.

"No." Sera turned her evil glare on the bishi and he merely shrugged.

"Too bad. I would have enjoyed that." He smirked when Sera's cheeks reddened.

"Lucifer," Eclipse said with a sigh. "Keep your hands to yourself and do try to behave in public."

Lucifer grumbled but stuffed his hands in his pockets. Sera almost started laughing when she found him in a button-up shirt and black jeans. She quickly sobered when she saw Kenshin's grip relax on his sword hilt. He innocently wandered up to walk next to her, effectively keeping Lucifer away.

Sera ushered the group over to the buffet, picking a table in the back. It was hard keeping track of all of them, but Eclipse helped her. Especially since Nyx had followed them down and kept trying to find a willing blood donor.

"Nyx, keep your hands to yourself. Lucifer, sit down and eat your eggs. Yoko, stop looking at everyone else's valuables and eat your breakfast before I shove it down your throat," Eclipse growled, his eyes flashing.

"Are you eating anything, Sera-dono?" Kenshin asked as he set down a plate between the two.

"Sure," Sera said with a shrug. "You want to share this?" She nodded to the plate.

Kenshin merely smiled and handed her a fork, keeping watch on the trouble makers, aka Lucifer and Nyx.

Anna's bishis preceded the others downstairs, all of them looking amused. Pavi and Luigi sat down near Graverobber, the three immersing themselves in conversation, while Eric plopped himself down across from Sera.

"What's going on?" The question came from Kurama.

"A full-out pillow fight," Eric said with a grin. "That's why Vlad's not here. He got dragged into it as a shield."

Sera snickered and shook her head. "Come on, we'd better round everyone up if we want to get out of here before nightfall."

As it turned out, they did indeed leave before nightfall. They were out of the city limits by 5, and well into the middle of nowhere by the time dark fell and most of the vampires came out to play. Figuratively speaking.

"Where are we headed again?" Shadow asked for the tenth time that day.

Belle sighed a long-suffering sigh. "We're heading past the Southern Vampire book series territory and the Rachel Morgan book series territory on our way to Yu-Gi-Oh. I think Hellsing is somewhere around there too."

"Oh. So no more hotels for a while?" Shadow's full pout made Belle twitch.

"No, that's why I told you all to get up early and gather supplies."

"Oh. Oops." Shadow grinned innocently as she helped find a place to set up camp, aka set up about four PD rooms.

Sera rolled her eyes. "There's a little clearing over here," she called to the others, setting her pack down before she set up Kenshin's PD room. After seeing Pavi, Luigi, and Graverobber all sauntering over, she set up Graverobber's PD room as well. She did not want to be in the middle of those three, and she wouldn't put it past them to try something.

"Alright, we'll rest here," Belle said. "And you guys better not stay up too late, since we're leaving again in the morning."

Anna pouted and grumbled a few things but then shrugged from her place on Vlad. She had demanded a piggy-back ride. Again. She got down to get up the PD room set up and promptly stole Vlad's bed. The vampire twitched.

"Yoko, Hiei, go get firewood," Belle ordered, starting to get food to make dinner out of a capsule. "I expect you back in five minutes."

Sera chuckled and helped with dinner, watching everyone settle in for the night. The vampires all left at one point, to go find blood somewhere, Sera assumed. Everyone else just ate what Sera and Belle made.

Four more days passed in this way, with Sera waking up in a cold sweat every morning from her strange dreams. They got increasingly worse every night until Sera was scared to sleep.

"Sera-dono, you look tired, that you do," Kenshin said with a small frown one morning.

"I'm fine," Sera said softly, trudging along after the others. So far none of them had seen any bishis that they wanted to catch. "Just haven't been sleeping well."

"Not comfortable enough?" Kurama asked, peering over at her and discreetly checking her forehead.

"No, just nightmares." Sera grimaced at the word and, up ahead of them, Belle froze.

"What kind of nightmares?" Kenshin asked.

Sera shrugged, unwilling to say more.

Belle resumed walking, ignoring Nyx's and Eclipse's questions. Instead she picked up Raenef and carried him for a while to keep herself occupied. The chibi really was quite adorable. Sometimes she wondered how Eclipse was his father, but she never asked. She knew she'd never get it out of Eclipse. There were some things he didn't even tell her, like why he'd helped her all those months ago.

Eclipse paused and looked off into the woods, tracking a flash of movement. He raised an eyebrow besides he shook his head and followed his trainer again, leaving the other alone.

That night while everyone sat around the fire eating their dinner, a pair of bright green eyes watched from the darkness. Their gaze rested on the two Erics, sitting side by side and talking to Nyx, before going wandering over the other bishis and their trainers. The eyes slipped back into the darkness, leaving no trace of ever having been there.

When everyone else retired to the PD rooms to sleep (there were now six PD rooms set up), Sera sat up by the fire, unwilling to sleep. She didn't want to keep having these dreams. They were driving her nuts trying to figure them out.

"You should get some sleep, that you should," Kenshin said softly, sitting next to Sera.

Sera shrugged. "I'm not tired."

Kurama sighed softly and heated a cup of water over the fire, adding a few leaves of something to it. "Here. It'll keep you relaxed," he said softly, handing it to his trainer.

Sera nodded her thanks and sipped at the tea, sighing softly as she stared into the murky depths. "You two go ahead and go to sleep," she said quietly, sipping the tea. It was oddly tasty.

"That's alright," Kurama said with a shrug. "We'd rather stay up and make sure you don't get into trouble." He grinned.

Sera huffed and rolled her eyes. "Easy for you to say," she grumbled. "You who always get into trouble of some sort."

"I do not," Kurama said, looking offended. "I get dragged into trouble by the others and then I save them from being in so much trouble." He grinned.

"Right, sure," Sera muttered, feeling her eyelids start to droop. "Whatever you say, 'Rama."

Kenshin blinked and peered at her until Kurama shook his head, merely smiling as he plucked the cup from limp fingers. Sera was already fast asleep.

"What did you do?" Kenshin asked as he picked Sera up, carrying her back into his PD room.

"A harmless drug," Kurama said, following him in. "It just put her to sleep. It won't do anything else. She's in no danger."

Kenshin eyed him for a moment before he nodded and set Sera on the bed. "That was smart of you, that it was."

Kurama merely smiled. "She needed her rest," he said softly. "I'd rather not watch her wear herself out. I don't know what's troubling her, but I hope it stops, for her sake." He sighed softly and settled down in a sleeping bag. "Good night, Kenshin."

"Good night, Kurama-san." Kenshin settled against the bed, staying up watching Sera until he, too, fell asleep.

Bright green eyes watched the mysterious doors for a few more moments before their owner turned and ran off to go ponder this strange group.


	8. Chapter 8

As usual, I don't own anything except a few characters. Do I have to keep putting this up? It's seriously getting annoying…

Shadow: You'll learn more soon. –grin-

LDD: You're close but you're not quite right. They're not memories. And I might give you hints if you want… :D

PeaceLoveOcelot: Don't worry, you'll start getting answers soon, I promise. And you're the second person to get it wrong! Oh I feel so accomplished. So those aren't Belle's past memories, or anyone's. Not yet anyway. X}

~*~

Sera woke the next morning feeling refreshed. She hadn't had any dreams. She was a little miffed that Kurama had drugged her, but she'd deal with that later.

"Morning, Sera," Belle said with a smile. "How did you sleep?"

"Just fine," Sera replied, sitting across from Belle, who was settled on Nyx's lap. She rolled her eyes at that but said nothing. "So is there anyone we're looking for in this area?"

"Not unless you wanted to get someone," Belle replied. "We already have two Erics, and there's no way I'm getting a Bill." She glowered at a tree. "So unless there's someone you want to catch, we're just passing through."

"Sam would be pretty fun to have around…" Sera muttered, biting her lower lip and worrying it between her teeth. She glanced over at Nyx and then thought of the other four vampires and sighed, shaking her head. "And it could end up being a general bloodbath. I'd rather not find out."

Belle laughed and nodded her agreement. "Probably a good decision. So we're just passing through. Then we'll get to the Rachel Morgan series area next. Anyone you want from there?"

Sera paused to think that over. "Hmm… I always liked Kisten, but I don't know how he'd be as a bishi. Jenks would be awesome to have around, but I don't think the others would appreciate having a six-inch-high pixie zooming around."

Belle laughed until Anna opened her door and poked her head out with a sleepy glare. "Trying to sleep here…"

"Too bad, start getting up," Belle replied with a grin. "We've gotta get going now anyway."

Anna groaned and slammed the door shut. Belle merely smiled and nodded to Duo, who got up and bounced over to the door with a big grin.

"I don't think you'd do so well with a demon," Belle said thoughtfully. "Minias maybe, but definitely not Ally-wally. You'd probably end up doing something stupid just to make him shut up."

Sera blushed and shook her head. "I would not! I'd just go nuts and probably end up releasing him." She rolled her eyes and poked at the dying fire with a stick.

Belle smiled to herself and got up, looking over at Anna's room when someone screamed from inside. Duo raced out the door and hid behind Belle while Anna followed him, indignantly tugging her shirt into place.

"Hand him over," Anna growled.

"No, I think I'll keep him," Belle said calmly.

"He was tickling me!"

"Nope. He's still mine. Go take it out on Vlad or Eric. They both look good with braids." Belle grinned.

Anna actually paused before an evil grin split her face. "Oh Eric…"

Sera shook her head, bemused. "I may not have given you enough credit before," she admitted to Belle.

"Nah, I just learned a few things from my bishis. Especially Lucifer. You'd be amazed at how well he can get himself out of trouble." She grinned and finished backing her things up, shooing all her bishis either back into their balls or out to walk with them before she closed her PD doors. Sera did the same, and Shadow closed hers and Anna's, since Anna was busy braiding Eric's hair.

"Alright, let's go." Belle set off, leading the way again. Sera followed, with Shadow and Anna bringing up the back this time. Only a few bishis were out this time, most of them either resting or farther out scouting. Eclipse, as usual, walked with Belle, but this time Lucifer was out as well, walking between Belle and Sera. Sera watched the Fallen curiously, getting more curious every time his wings rustled. Luckily for her (or for Lucifer), he was always too far away to touch, and Kurama had engaged the younger trainer in conversation.

They walked for the entire day without seeing anything, though Eclipse and Lucifer got increasingly nervous, moving closer to Belle and Rae. Kenshin also seemed to be on guard, looking around for something Sera couldn't see. Shadow and Anna seemed oblivious, both of them braiding their Eric's hair. Both Erics looks rather long-suffering, though Sera noticed they kept darting almost nervous glances around as well. What was going on that they were all so nervous about?

Just as night had completely fallen and they were looking for a place to stop and rest, a figure darted across the path in front of them. Belle stopped, making Sera crash into her. Eclipse moved in front of both of them, while Lucifer spread his wings, his eyes narrowing. Nyx moved after the person and a moment later there was a yelp and then silence.

Nyx emerged from the trees, his eyes glued on the woman in front of him. Bright green eyes surveyed the group, blonde hair falling to the middle of her back and left unbound. Jeans fit snugly against her, and a tight t-shirt completed the outfit. From the way that all the vampires stiffened and watched her, Sera guessed she wasn't human.

"Who are you?" Eclipse asked, staying in front of his trainer.

"My name is Kate," the woman said, nodding to Eclipse. "I've been watching you for the past few days. I was wondering if I could travel with you."

Belle blinked and exchanged looks with Sera, who merely shrugged. Both were saved from answering when Duzell stepped forward.

"You so sure you want to do that?" he asked softly.

"I'm sure." Kate flipped her hair back over her shoulder, exposing her ears, which were slightly pointed at the tips. Sera and Belle looked at each other and nodded. Kate was a fairy, or at least part.

"You can stay for tonight at least," Belle said. "We'll see how thing work out from there."

Kate nodded. "If you want there's a clearing up ahead," she said with a friendly smile. "I'll show you." She turned and walked down the path, confident. The vampires followed her with their eyes until their trainers started moving. Nyx, on the other hand, was following Kate, a few feet in front of Eclipse.

The fairy helped them set up camp quickly and even helped them cook, chatting with them easily. Her eyes missed nothing, especially not the fact that she had the attention of every vampire except Duzell, and she basked in the attention.

"So what exactly are you?" Belle asked in the middle of dinner.

"Half-fae," Kate replied easily. "My father is a Claude."

"You mean not all of them are gay?" Shadow asked, blinking.

Kate grinned. "Oh you bet not. After all, if they all were there would be no more little Claudes. So most of them swing both ways."

"What are you doing here though?" Sera asked before Shadow could say anything else. "I mean, why did you leave the city?"

Kate shrugged. "I got tired of it," she said, stretching out in front of the fire. "I wanted to go see the world, but no one else would go with me. And since I see you have another halfling here anyway I figured you wouldn't mind." She nodded to Nyx with a grin. Nyx hadn't once taken his eyes off the half fairy; the other vampires were in the same predicament.

Belle's eyes narrowed slightly. "I see," she said, her voice cool. "You can travel with us for as long as you want so long as you don't cause any problems."

Kate grinned. "Oh don't worry," she said. "I won't cause any problems at all." She grinned and winked at Nyx, who smirked, his fangs poking out over his lip.

Sera shook her head. That was a typical fairy for you. They were all attention whores, the lot of them. Belle didn't seem as amused as the other three trainers. She ate the rest of her dinner in silence and then retreated to Eclipse's PD room with Rae.

Anna ended up explaining PD rooms to Kate when everyone was ready to retreat into the rooms for the night and Kate picked a random room. Both Erics followed her in, and Nyx looked tempted. Instead, he went into Eclipse's, shaking his head. Sera retreated into Kenshin's with her three, as was becoming routine for them, a small frown marring her forehead.

"What's wrong?" Kurama asked, sitting next to her and leaning back against the side of the bed. They were both seated on the floor.

"Belle sure didn't look happy with Kate," Sera said softly. "I wonder why."

Kurama chuckled quietly. "She likes him," he said softly. "Belle likes Nyx. I don't know what their relationship is, but she likes him. And he was looking at Kate a lot. Therefore, she was jealous."

Sera blinked a few times before she nodded slowly. It fit, at least. She'd have to ask Belle about it later.

The three settled down to sleep quickly after that, with Sera on the bed and the other three around her. Sera slept peacefully again, glad that the nightmares weren't haunting her again. Not yet anyway.

Far away, nearly on the other side of Bishiworld, a man sat in his office, peering at a notebook. Light brown, almost dirty blonde hair fell over his unnaturally green eyes. Those same glass-green or mako-green eyes peered at the page before looking up at the two demons standing on either side of him. "Are you sure?" Musical voice lilted with a slight, undeterminable accent.

"Yes," the taller of the two demons said. "We're sure."

"Excellent. You've both done well." A smirk crossed the man's lips. "Have Seto track them and alert me when they come close enough."

The two demons nodded and vanished, going farther into the house. For this was, in fact, a house, not an evil laboratory set in the side of a mountain or hiding underground. It was a nice house set at the edge of a town with calm green fields around it and a desert off in the distance. The house itself had two floors, painted a light blue on the outside with curtains over most of the windows in the house, and three steps leading up to the front door. All in all very unsuspicious, inconspicuous. For now.

Sera woke with a start the next morning to a shout and the sound of a door being slammed. She rolled out of bed, expertly jumping over Kenshin and Kurama, and went out in her pjs, meaning sweatpants and a really big t-shirt. She hurried over to the door next to hers and opened it, expecting to see Eclipse, Rae, Nyx, and Belle. Unfortunately for her eyes, it wasn't. Instead she saw just how close Belle and Nyx were. And Belle was on top.

Sera quickly slammed the door shut, her eyes wide. Eclipse stood behind her, looking both murderous and surprised.

"What?" Kenshin poked his head out of his room. "What happened?"

"Well, we now know for sure that your trainer was innocent," Eclipse said grimly, pulling Sera closer to him and rubbing her temples gently. Sera groaned quietly.

Kenshin eyed the two before he nodded. He went back into his room and, after much swearing and muttering, returned with a bottle of ibuprofen and a water bottle. Sera managed a smile for him and took two, guzzling down half the water bottle.

"That was not something I wanted to see," she muttered, shaking her head. "Especially not this early in the morning…"

Eclipse chuckled quietly. "I'm surprised she didn't lock the door." He rolled his eyes and sat Sera in front of the charred remains of the fire, building it up with a wave of his hand. He rummaged through Belle's pack, starting to cook breakfast.

Sera should have been laughing at the scene: Eclipse, one of the most feared and respected demons, cooking breakfast. But she didn't. Instead she just tried to banish the image she'd just seen from her mind, grimacing.

Kenshin and Kurama sat next to her, helping to distract her by telling her about the areas they were going through. Kate joined them by the fire, a little paler than normal. She turned to Sera, raising her eyebrows.

"The first time was you, huh?" Sera asked softly.

Kate nodded. "I wanted to ask Nyx something, but…" She shrugged and grinned suddenly. "Well, at least now I know why what's-her-face wasn't all that happy last night."

Sera rolled her eyes and leaned against Kenshin, her eyes half-closed. She ate whatever Eclipse handed to her, hardly tasting it. Anna and Shadow got up at the smell of food, walking over like zombies and falling on their food. In Anna's case, almost literally. She was so tired she almost fell face-first into her plate, except Vlad kept her upright. Barely.

Nearly an hour later Belle and Nyx emerged, both of them dressed and looking as if nothing had happened. Sera refused to look at either of them, instead getting up and taking the lead, following Kate's instructions and the map Eclipse had handed to her silently. The two chatted as they walked, ignoring the rest of the group. Kenshin and Kurama took turns scouting ahead while Graverobber walked behind them.

By the time night fell, they had entered the next area, and Anna was actively scanning the area for bishis. While the rest of them were sitting around eating dinner, Anna jumped up and ran after something, a maniacal grin on her face. Vlad followed her with a long-suffering sigh.

"Wonder who she's going after," Belle murmured, starting to clean up. Shadow helped her.

"Dunno. We'll find out soon enough," Kate said with a big smile.

Kate's prediction held true. Anna bounced back into camp, dragging a demon behind her. He looked like the ideal version of young British nobility, until his eyes were exposed. His eyes were slitted horizontally, like a goat's eyes.

"You caught an Al?" Belle asked, looking at him with some surprise. "Oh this is going to be very interesting…"

Nyx raised his eyebrows at the demon, a faint smirk playing around his lips. Then he went back to his blood, shaking his head in amusement.

Sera sighed and dropped her head into her hands with a playful groan. "We're all doomed."

Al turned a wounded glare on her before he sniffed and stuck his nose up, sitting down away from her. His dignified presence was shattered when Anna started poking him and playing with his hair, generally annoying him. He scowled but did nothing, merely muttering to himself.

Sera shook her head and leaned against Kenshin, falling asleep in front of the fire with the feeling of hostile eyes watching her.


	9. Chapter 9

I'm really sorry for the long time between updates everyone! Life just got really crazy for a while… Actually, it still is…

LDD: I will try to get little notes up for the different areas if they're not really well-known. Anyway, my friend came up with the idea for the scene and I just couldn't resist. Poor Sera will be scarred for life! (evil cackle)

ShadowShinigami13: Sera and Kenshin are just so cute together! I love it! Anyway, the green eyes didn't belong to the man, they belong to Kate. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. ^^ And Vlad is the other form of Alucard from Hellsing. You see that in volumes 8 and 9, and he's referred to as Count part of the time. It's Count Vlad. So I just use Vlad.

LoneHowl: I know, but it's just so much fun. Not like you lot didn't corrupt me earlier.

PeaceLoveOcelot: You'll just have to wait and see. ^^ Yea, Nyx and Belle are an item. Kate's never met any of them before, but she's a half-fairy. Fairies are known for being flirtatious and they love attention. Most of them don't like vamps because fairy blood is like a drug to vamps, but Kate's only half and she's semi-suicidal in the sense that she loves vamps. Go figure.

Shadow: Yea, I know you loved this. Don't worry, there shall be more to come. Mwahahahahaha!

~*~

Evil cackles were the first thing Sera heard, along with muted growls and swears. She blinked and found the door open, her bishis gone. She got up quickly and headed outside, throwing on a jacket over her pajamas. She blinked at what she saw.

Al was sitting on the ground with Anna behind him, putting lots of little braids into his hair while cackling. He was the source of the swearing. Vlad stood over both of them, looking highly amused.

"Welcome to newbie initiation," Vlad said with a grin, fangs gleaming in the faint sunlight. "You'll be subject to this torture and more for at least the duration of the day. Try to hurt her and I'll hurt you." That said, Vlad vanished.

Sera shook her head and yawned, looking over at Belle, who was cooking breakfast. There was a faint mark on her neck, which Sera decided not to ask about. She didn't need any more nightmares, thanks.

"Morning," Sera greeted the group at large.

"Hi kid. Sleep well?" Belle looked up from the eggs and bacon with a smile.

Sera shrugged. "Fair enough, as usual."

Belle frowned. "Nightmares?"

Sera nodded silently, folding her legs under her and sitting by the fire silently. She took the plate handed to her, chasing her food around a bit before actually eating. Kenshin sat next to her while Kurama leaned against a tree behind them, watching the group with an amused smile.

"This is ridiculous," Al grumbled audibly as he fumed, sitting through his torture. "I am a demon, not some doll."

"For now you are," Nyx said with a grin. As soon as Belle sat next to him, he slid his arm around her waist in a blatant sign of possession. Al glowered at him.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Kate asked as she walked over from the trees. Sera nearly jumped at her arrival, having not even noticed the fairy.

"Well, I figured we could eat breakfast, scare Sera a bit, maybe go dump her in the nearest river…" Belle trailed off with a grin at her sister's vicious glare. "Nah. Actually, I figured we'd just wander around for a bit and look for bishis."

Kate nodded and took a plate for herself. "Alright. I can keep you from wandering into a city, at least," she said after swallowing a mouthful of eggs. "Which direction did you want to go?"

Belle paused, looking down at the ring she wore on her right ring finger. Sera realized with a pang that it was the ring she'd gotten for Belle several years ago. "That direction." She pointed vaguely off to the left; North, Sera thought. Maybe. Possibly. If she was lucky.

"When do you want to leave?" Kate dumped her plate in a closet with the rest of them. Belle grimaced at the pile before nodding to Shadow, who was half-asleep and leaning on her Atemu. The ex-pharaoh had a very long suffering look, while the others laughed at him.

"Shadow! Get up!" Anna yelled, waving her arms around. Well, waving her elbows around, really, since her hands were still attached to bits of Al's hair.

Shadow jerked upright, looking around. "What? I didn't start that fire," she said, her eyes far too wide to be completely innocent.

"What fire?" Belle looked over at her, both eyebrows raised. "I do believe you're keeping something from us, dear Shadow."

"Nothing, nothing," Shadow muttered hurriedly. "Just an incident in the art lab."

"This I want to hear." Sera grinned as she collected several plates and put them in the closet, shutting the door and helping to pack everything away for the day.

"Well, once I left some paints out and I was just having fun smearing them on a piece of paper when my friends and I decided to see how well the oils burned. So we dropped it in a trash can, got a match and dropped it on the paper." Shadow paused, flushing slightly. "We forgot about it and when we came back one of the desks was on fire."

Almost everyone awake roared with laughter while Shadow blushed furiously, though she was laughing too. Sera grinned and went back over to Kenshin and Kurama, grinning up at them. Yes, up. At least neither of them was freakishly tall like Eric.

"Ok, are we all ready to go? 'Cause if not we're leaving without you," Belle said as she got up, picking up her backpack. Nyx tried to grab the backpack and hurriedly backed off at the vicious glare he received.

Anna allowed Al to get to his feet before holding her arms out. "Carry me."

Al groaned and closed his eyes briefly. "Why couldn't I be dealing with a Rachel instead…" However, he obediently crouched down and let Anna hop on his back piggy-back style. He continued to grumble under his breath, half of which sounded like curses. None of them had any hold, so nothing happened. Which Sera was rather grateful for.

Kate stopped half-way through the day as she heard someone moving to her left, farther into the trees. The person wasn't visible and just barely audible to her, carefully staying out of range. Her own green eyes narrowed as she looked around, scanning the trees before snorting in minor disgust. Another demon, she figured. Probably harmless to them. Not many wild bishis would be stupid enough to attack a group this large.

Of course, not many did not mean all.

Luckily for Kate's optimism, they weren't attacked that day. The rustling of their silent observer never went away entirely, but at least he or she stayed on the outskirts.

"We're being followed," Nyx said shortly after nightfall, glancing around. He never left Belle's side, watching her carefully, though she seemed perfectly fine today.

"We have been for the past three days," Eclipse said quite calmly. "The first day was Kate. The past two have been an unknown source. He is careful to stay just outside our range." Eclipse's eyes narrowed faintly.

"Probably just a curious bishi. Harmless," Belle said, shrugging off the possible threat. "Besides, even if someone did try something, there are enough bishis around to kick someone's ass."

"Unless the person was extremely careful and had planned well in advance," Eclipse said softly. "We all do have weaknesses, you realize."

"I know. But that would take more than one person to carry everything needed to take out all of you," Belle said rationally, though her eyes swept the surrounding area. She couldn't rid herself of the nagging feeling of being watched.

"I don't think that would even be possible," Sera said, interjecting from just behind them. "I mean, there are vamps, demons, humans, just about everything with us. I don't think it would be possible to take out everyone."

"The kid has a point," Nyx said softly, eyeing Sera. The younger bristled and her eyes narrowed at him. "Strange but true. Ow!"

Sera glared and rubbed her knuckles from where she'd punched the halfling in the back. "Watch what you say," she growled at him.

Belle laughed. "Yea, there's no way to take out my little baby sister," she said with a grin. She ruffled up Sera's hair, ignoring her indignant squawk. "Oh Duo, come fix her hair."

Duo bounced over to them with a big grin. "Here, carry her for me," he said to Kurama, who was closest. He promptly dumped Sera into Kurama's arms bridal style.

Sera yelped as she was picked up, dumped, and caught again. She scowled at Duo before he started combing out her hair with his fingers. She shivered and almost instantly relaxed, becoming a boneless puddle in Kurama's arms. Duo grinned to himself and spent a good ten minutes combing out her hair and braiding it, re-braiding it, and finally braiding it before pulling it up into a bun.

"Alright, let's make camp here," Kate said, stopping in a good-sized clearing. "We can stop here for tonight and keep moving tomorrow. There should be a town about another day's walk from here, according to the map."

"Sounds good to me," Shadow said, dropping her backpack and flopping on the ground with a relieved sigh. Eric rolled his eyes and set up his PD room before dragging Shadow inside.

"You may put me down now," Anna said courteously to Al, just before she was dropped. She landed on her butt with an 'oof!' and a very indignant look. Al merely smirked and rolled his shoulders. "Vlad! Al's being mean!"

Vlad sighed the long-suffering sigh of a father and went to go tend to his 'child' aka his trainer.

Belle and Sera both worked on dinner, handing it out as it finished. Sera glanced around the camp at the large group and smiled. Everyone seemed fairly happy, even Al. He grumbled a lot but he never actually tried anything. For him, that was happy.

"Sera-dono," Kenshin said softly after they had all eaten and were drifting away to either get dessert, talk somewhere quieter, or go to bed.

"Yes Kenshin?" Sera looked over at him with a smile. Graverobber was talking with Pavi, Luigi, and Anna. That could be potentially explosive, but she wouldn't worry about that yet.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Concerned purple eyes watched her as she shifted uncomfortably.

"Apart from the nightmares and this person following us, yea," Sera said softly. "Unfortunately I don't think there's any way to stop the nightmares. They come and go. They probably won't last more than a week, luckily." The younger trainer shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

Kenshin shrugged. "You have been sleeping in later, that you have," he said softly. "And you look tired." He gently touched her cheek just under her eye.

"Well I'm not taking more drugs to sleep," Sera grumbled with a scowl at Kurama. "I'll probably toss and turn a lot, but that's normal. Besides, I'm tired tonight so I'll probably sleep better."

Kenshin nodded after a moment and looked over at the center of the circle, or what remained of it, as Kate put out the fire, plunging the rest into darkness, illuminated only by the open or partially open doors. A few pairs of faintly glowing eyes slipped off into the darkness; some of the vampires, going to hunt. The rest of the bishis returned to the PD rooms to talk or get some sleep. Kenshin pulled Sera to her feet and led the way into his PD room; Kurama followed the two.

"Sure you don't want me to drug you again?" Kurama asked as he and Kenshin turned around so their trainer could change into her pajamas. "You'd be out like a light. No dreams."

"No thanks," Sera said. Kurama snickered at her tone of voice; she sounded annoyed. "Suggest it again and I'll tell you where to put your drugs."

Kurama laughed softly while Kenshin looked a little shocked. "Sera-dono!" he chided. "That is no way for a young lady to speak."

"You sound like my mother," Sera groaned before she fell face-first on the bed. "Besides, I didn't actually say anything. And it's his fault. He was doing it on purpose."

"I was not!" Kurama said, feigning innocence.

"Were too!"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

Kenshin sighed. "Oro… I seem to be stuck with children…" He grinned nervously when they both gave him indignant looks. "Eh heh heh…"

Sera huffed as she settled down in the bed. "No more drugging me, Kurama. I mean it."

Kurama sighed but nodded, settling down on a sleeping bag. "Alright." He closed his eyes and rolled over, falling asleep quickly. Kenshin stayed up, watching as Sera's eyelids drooped and she slowly fell asleep, her earbuds in her ears. Kenshin smiled and drifted off to sleep soon after that himself.

Belle woke with a yawn and glanced around. The room was dark, and the others were asleep. Nyx was curled up between her and the wall, and Raenef was safe in Eclipse's arms. Belle got up and pulled on a pair of pants over the sleep shorts she was still wearing. Stepping over Eclipse's legs, she stepped outside silently, glancing around. Everything was still and dark, and she could hardly see. What little of the sky visible amongst the branches and leaves was dark, with bright spots glittering against the black background. No moon illuminated the ground, hardly any light filtering through the trees. Belle was as good as blind.

Rustling and a soft cry of pain drew her attention. Belle frowned and stepped forward, pausing briefly to consider just how stupid going out in the middle of the woods on her own in the middle of the night would be. She could always rouse someone… The cry sounded again, a little louder, a little closer, a little darker. Belle hesitated again, half-turned towards the still-open door. Whimpering reached her ears, followed by an agonized yelp. Third time's the charm.

Belle turned away from the door and went into the forest, trying to follow the sounds in the dark. Eyes wide, pupils dilating to absorb as much light as possible, hands stretched out in front of her, Belle managed not to run into anything. Stumbling through the trees, she nearly tripped over something soft and warm.

A body lay stretched out in front of her, one she could hardly see. Belle crouched down and touched the prone form hesitantly, her eyes wider than before.

A soft groan was her response and the person lifted his head. His eyes gleamed in the darkness and he managed to drag himself so he was laying on his back instead of his stomach.

"What happened?" Belle asked, moving a little closer. She put her hand on his shoulder gently, trying to keep him from moving too much. She couldn't tell if he was a bishi or a trainer.

"Attacked," the man gasped. "Tried to run. Broke my leg."

Belle looked and shook her head; she couldn't see a thing in the darkness. "Who attacked you?"

"Demon," came the reply, hushed and pained.

"What?" Belle frowned, now confused. It was hardly like a demon to attack unprovoked, and then only break someone's leg and leave. Any demons in this area would break the leg and then some. There would be no way a demon would simply leave. Unless the demon was under someone else's control.

Her thoughts still spiraling, trying to figure out the demon and how to help the man in front of her, the trainer didn't notice when the man grinned, his eyes flashing bright orange with horizontal pupils. He reached up and grabbed her, pulling her down against his chest before he murmured in Latin. Her yelp was muffled by his chest as he moved them far away from the campsite, the bishis, and the other trainers.

His master was going to be very pleased with him. Perhaps he'd even get a treat later on. The demon's grin widened at that thought. Oh yes. Perhaps when his master was done he could take the girl and mess with her head a little himself. That would entertain him greatly…


	10. Chapter 10

I still don't own any of this except a few characters. Everything else belongs to someone else. Moving on.

~*~

Sera woke to a loud argument and snarling. She tumbled out of bed, fell on Kurama, and ran outside, dragging the bed sheets with her.

Outside was a mess. The sun hadn't yet fully risen, yet all of Belle's bishis were up. Raenef was sitting with Duzell, who was apparently protecting the boy. Duo was with those two, though his eyes were wide and he looked scared. Eclipse and Nyx were snarling at each other, both of them looking extremely pissed off, while Lucifer debated getting between the two. Yoko, Kuronue, and Hiei all had taken up spots around the camp, looking out into the woods. All three looked a little strained.

"What's going on?" Sera asked, walking over to Eclipse and Nyx. Eclipse turned to look at her and she paused at the pain and fury in his gaze.

"Belle's gone," Nyx growled. His eyes were glowing slightly, fangs poking out over his lips.

"Gone? What do you mean? She just wandered off?" Sera asked, frowning.

"No. Gone as in taken," Eclipse said softly, his voice emotionless and blank. "She is much more than three miles away from us, and has been for an hour or more."

"Well can you track her?" Sera asked, looking between the two. "If we can figure out what direction she went then we can go after her."

Nyx growled softly while Eclipse glanced at the others. Lucifer nodded and moved over to the others, rounding them all up and telling them to go back into their bishiballs. Belle's belt and all her things were still resting on the floor of Eclipse's PD room. Raenef walked over to Sera and looked up at her with teary eyes. Sera picked him up, murmuring to him as Eclipse and Nyx both looked around, trying to find Belle.

"There." Nyx had frozen, staring off to the west. "She's that way somewhere."

"She is far," Eclipse said softly, staring in the same direction. "I do not know if I can reach her from this distance. I can get us closer but not to her."

"Anything will do," Nyx snapped. "Let's go!"

"Wait!" When two pairs of glaring, glowing eyes fixed on her, Sera flinched. "We can't leave without letting the others know."

"So wake them and tell them," Nyx snarled, advancing on Sera slowly. "We're leaving."

"No." Sera took a deep breath. "Eclipse and I will go. You should wait here and wake up Anna and Shadow and tell them."

"There is no way in Hell I'm staying here while you two go!" Nyx yelled, fury lacing his voice and making Sera flinch. "Eclipse and I should go without you, thrice-damned human fool!"

Sera swallowed hard. "You might need me," she said. "I can help. So can my bishis. Just let me tell the others and we'll go, I swear."

Eclipse nodded before Nyx could say anything. "Do it fast. We need to get closer."

Sera nodded and ran to the closest PD door. Throwing it open, she found Al, Vlad, and Anna in the room, with Anna curled up and Vlad sitting next to her, asleep. Al was sprawled out on the floor and almost sort-of snoring. "Anna! Get up!"

The two bishis responded before their trainer did. Al woke up with a groggy murmur of, "Where'ze fire?" Vlad snapped to full attention, looking at Sera.

"What is it?" Anna asked sleepily, yawning. "It's too early…"

"Belle's gone," Sera said hurriedly. "We think kidnapped. She's too far away. I'm taking my bishis and hers and Nyx and I'm going to go get her."

"Mmhm." Anna settled down again, clearly not awake enough. Sera growled in frustration.

"I'll tell her," Vlad said softly. "Go. Before Nyx blows something up." A faint smirk twitched his lips before he nodded to the younger trainer, returning his attention to his own trainer.

Sera nodded and ran back to Eclipse and Nyx. While she'd been talking they had gathered her things and handed her the belt and her backpack. Before she'd even finished buckling the belt, each had grabbed one of her arms and all three vanished.

~*~

Amber eyes narrowed slightly as three figures appeared on a screen in front of him. "This might be troublesome," a cold, male voice murmured to himself. "You see this as well?"

"Yes." An equally cold, though younger male had replied. Both of them sat in silence for a moment, the light of the screens casting their faces in sharp relief, making them both ghostly pale. "You going to tell him?"

"Might as well." The first figure rose, towering over the second and the computers and TV screens around them. "I've got a better chance of surviving his wrath than you."

"Just because you're his second," the second voice growled, now sounding annoyed. He huffed as he turned back to the screen, which was now tracking the three figures. "Time to make things more interesting…"

The first figure rolled his eyes and left the younger to play with his electronics and instead went to inform their master. Someone would have hell to pay if they got in before he finished his experiments, and he sure wasn't going to be the one to pay it.

~*~

Nyx frowned as he paused. "I can't tell any farther than this," he said softly, nodding to the trees and the mountains around them. "I know she's close, but I can't tell where she is." He growled and glared up at the sky as the sun rose behind the mountains, chasing the darkness away.

"I cannot tell exactly where she is either," Eclipse said softly. He carried Belle's things with him, his eyes narrowed as he looked around. "We will simply have to walk around until we find her."

"I doubt she's just wandering around out here, Eclipse," Nyx said sharply. "I seriously doubt it."

"So do I," Eclipse said calmly. "However, once we get close enough to her, we'll feel it. So we had best be looking." Now that he was close enough to his trainer that there was no threat of madness, Eclipse was much calmer, more methodical.

"Wouldn't this be easier with more people?" Sera asked, glancing at them. "I mean, if there's a lot of ground to cover, then why not have everyone out and have them split up into a few groups?"

Both men paused to look at her. Sera fidgeted under the scrutiny.

"That would work well," Eclipse said after a moment. "Here." He handed Belle's belt to Sera.

Within moments all the bishis were out and split up into groups. Sera was with her three to stay there and wait for people to report back, while all the others fanned out. She sighed and leaned back against a tree.

"I don't like this, that I don't," Kenshin said softly. "There's something about this that is wrong."

"Why would someone kidnap Belle, in the first place?" Kurama asked softly. "And why Belle? There were four trainers, yet this person took Belle. Why her? And why then?"

"Not to mention who did it," Graverobber said. "A bishi would have to be rogue or have orders to do it. And any trainer giving orders like that is just messed up."

"If I knew that I would have already gone after the person and beaten the crap out of him or her myself." Sera sighed and rested her head in her hands, already tired.

"We'll find him," Kenshin said confidently. "I promise you we will."

Sera nodded, too tired to respond properly. Too tired to be fully awake but too wired to sleep. And she certainly wasn't about to ask Kurama to drug her again. She could do without that. She needed to be alert and awake in case someone found her sister.

After all, they were her only hope now.

~*~

Belle sat slumped on the floor of her cell. The room was completely blank, plain off-white walls surrounding her in a room that was roughly ten feet by twelve feet and at least ten feet high. She'd been thrown in the room by the man, rather the demon, who had grabbed her almost two hours ago and had been left alone. She couldn't feel her bishis, her sister, anyone around her. The loss of feeling them was a physical ache, centered around her heart. Belle closed her eyes tightly and pressed the heel of her hand against her chest, trying to relieve some of the pain, at least. But it didn't go away.

Time passed slowly, crawling and inching past her as she struggled to maintain her control, her precious control. As the three hour mark came and went, she'd had enough of being alone in the silence. It was pressing against her, pressing against her eardrums, the silence almost painful in its stillness. Only her own panicked breathing broke the silence. Not even the tiny vent in one upper corner of the room made any sound.

Belle couldn't stand it. Sure, she liked having some time to herself, but she had always known that someone would be there, within hearing range. She'd never in her life been so alone as she was then, and it hurt. She knew that her bishis were close, but she couldn't feel any of them. But from the fact that she wasn't going crazy and she couldn't feel any of them in pain, she knew that they were alright. She was the only one that wasn't.

The door opened and Belle jumped to her feet, trying to slow her breathing. A very attractive man in his early twenties entered the room, shutting the door behind him. Brown hair with blonde highlights was brushed back from his face, falling down past his ears to define the sharp contours of his face. His eyes were bright, unnatural green, almost a metallic shade of green. A dark gray button-up shirt, black slacks, black dress shoes, and a white lab coat covered most of his lightly tanned skin. He turned his gaze to Belle and she froze. Something was simply _wrong_ with that gaze.

"Belle, isn't it?" the man asked, smiling at her. "How nice to finally meet you. I've heard about you, you know. It's really rather surprising, the bond you have with your bishis. Very rare, you know, to have physical pains when you're so alone." Something cold and cruel glinted in his eyes.

"Who are you?" Belle asked, stepping back only to find the wall at her back. There was no way out except the door, and he stood in front of the door.

"My dear girl, do you really think I'll tell you that?" he asked with a pleasant smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I don't think it's really necessary for you to know my name so you can go running off to tell the authorities once you're free."

"Once I'm free?" Belle asked, standing up a little straighter.

"Oh of course," the man said, showing white teeth in his smile. "I'm not keeping you here permanently. I just need a few blood samples, you see, and then you'll be free to go."

Belle eyed him warily, backing herself into a corner. "Why should I trust your word?"

"You shouldn't." The man suddenly grinned, and this time the feral glee did reach his eyes, making his face more alien, more remote. He moved forward swiftly and grabbed Belle's arm, twisting her around with one practiced move and pulling her arm up until she gasped with pain and stopped moving. He extracted a needle from his pocket and stabbed it into the inside of Belle's elbow, ignoring her yelp of pain as he withdrew the blood he needed. Carefully capping the needle and putting it back in his pocket, he released her arm and stepped back. "Thank you for your donation, Miss Belle." With a mocking bow to her, he stepped out of the room. The click of the lock was loud in the ensuing silence.

"Get back here!" Belle yelled, throwing herself at the door. "Let me out! Please! Come back and let me out!!" She screamed in wordless rage and despair and slid to the ground, beating her fists uselessly against the door.

~*~

Sera woke near noon when all of the bishis gathered around her again. She looked up at them and sighed, closing her eyes against sudden tears.

"We will find her," Eclipse said softly, seeming to sense Sera's distress. "She's not more than a mile from here. We will circle this area of the mountain, go farther up and down." He looked at the three thieves and demons, along with the vampire, and nodded to them. Duzell paused before he followed Hiei, Yoko, and Kuronue down the mountain. Nyx had already started up the mountain with Lucifer. Eclipse gently touched Sera's cheek before he followed them, leaving Duo and Raenef with Sera.

"Might as well make some lunch," Sera muttered, rummaging through her own supplies of food. She ate silently, hardly tasting the vegetables and chicken, sharing with her bishies and the other two. Duo left Raenef to play with Kenshin while he comforted Sera and himself by playing with her hair.

A yell from a little further down the mountain nearly an hour drew Sera's attention, and she turned quickly. She found Belle laying against a tree, her back curled arched awkwardly around the trunk. Duo got there before anyone, crouching down and picking up his trainer before looking around.

"How is she?" Sera asked, skidding to a halt next to Duo.

Duzell raised Belle's left arm, which was bruised and had several small spots decorating her elbow, bits of dried blood around each. "Not so good, if the fact that she's unconscious is any indicator."

Nyx appeared next to them, scooping Belle out of Duo's arms and holding her close. "Where was she?" he asked, his voice lethally calm.

"Right here," Sera said, nodding to the tree. "Just laying on the ground, like she'd rolled down into the tree."

Eclipse's eyes narrowed and he buckled the belt around Belle's waist, still carrying her backpack. "We need to get back to town and make sure she's treated."

Sera frowned. "We hardly even know where we are. How will we know where a city is?"

Eclipse glanced over at Nyx. "We have been to several cities in our time with Belle," he said after a moment. "They are not close."

Sera shook her head, frustrated. "That's no good. We need somewhere closer, somewhere that you two won't have to strain so much to get us." She fumbled with her bishidex, getting the map and pointing at the little red dot that was her. "Look, there's a city here and another one here. We can go to one of them."

Eclipse and Nyx exchanged looks again. "It will not be easy," he said softly. He glanced around at the other bishis, who all silently retreated to their balls again. "We should be able to get close." He frowned down at the limp form of his trainer in Nyx's arms before he put one hand on Nyx's shoulder and the other on Sera's. He closed his eyes and they all vanished.

As soon as they appeared on the outskirts of the town, Nyx took off towards it, vanishing so the guard wouldn't see him and heading towards the nearest hospital. He didn't even look back to see if Eclipse was following him.

Eclipse sighed and shook his head, looking over at Sera to offer that she find a place to stay first. Then he paused, looking around. Where was she?

~*~

Sera groaned as she sat up, looking around. She could see a town in front of her, and she started walking towards it. Maybe the others had gone ahead? She really hoped so. She didn't want to be left alone.

With that thought, she let out her three bishis and walked close to Kenshin's side.

"Sera-dono? Where are the others?" Kenshin asked softly, peering down at his trainer as she pulled out her bishidex to see where they were.

"I don't know," Sera said softly. "Eclipse tried to teleport us to this city, but when I got here neither of them were with me." At least she was close to one entrance to the city. She just hoped it was the same one.

"Are you so sure about that?" Kurama asked, edging in closer to Sera's other side.

"Yeah. Why?" Sera looked up and paused as well.

A man stood not far away, smirking as he leaned against a tree. He was holding something, though Sera couldn't see what. He looked up from his hand to meet Sera's eyes, his smirk widening into a grin.

"Hello, Sera." His voice was soft and melodious, reaching across the grass to Sera like velvet.

"How do you know my name?" Sera asked cautiously.

"I know much about you," the man replied, orange/red demon eyes glinting. "I know even more about your sister."

Sera took a few steps forward, slowly closing the gap between them. She ignored Kenshin and Kurama trying to grab her, hold her back. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I know where she was for eight hours," the man purred.

"How do I know that?" Sera took two more steps forward, yanking her arm out of Kenshin's grip, her eyes narrowed.

"I was the one who kidnapped her, dear innocent girl," the man said with a mocking laugh. "Don't believe me, here's some proof." He held up his hand and let cut strands of hair sift through his fingers.

Black and auburn hair.

Belle's hair.

Sera growled, something she hadn't even known she was capable of, and lunged at the demon. He laughed and darted into the trees, grinning. Sera took off after him, ignoring Kenshin, Kurama, and Graverobber yelling and running after her. Red started to obscure the edges of her vision, and she ran faster, determined to hurt the demon who had hurt her sister. She didn't care if she was kicked out for it, or if she had to do it alone, but she would do it.

Kenshin and Kurama could only watch as both the demon and their trainer vanished into the trees, some sort of spell going up to keep them from following. Kenshin swore to himself, his eyes glinting gold, while Kurama paced and tried to figure out how to get through the spell. Graverobber tried to go around, but all three of them could do nothing but wait.


	11. Chapter 11

As usual, I own nothing but a few characters.

LDD: Yea, I know, Sera's being an idiot. But it makes things SO much more interesting! And plenty bad stuff can happen in a few hours, let alone the eight hours they had Belle for. Yes, I am evil. Mwahaha. Don't worry, life catches up with us all. If you don't get to read it immediately that's fine with me. :)

Peace: Yea, things get real interesting when people aren't thinking rationally. All rational thought went out the window for Sera. And Nyx. Eclipse managed to retain most of his, but still. And I added in little thingies to the last chapter so people can tell when the scene changes. I've done the same for this chapter. Thanks for reminding me.

~*~

Sera didn't slow when the demon did, instead pulling her arm back to punch him in the nose. Her eyes narrowed and she ran towards him, only to be stopped by a sort of invisible shield he put between the two of them. She growled again, glaring at him. "What do you want?"

"Nothing from you," the demon said with a vicious grin. "I just want to talk."

"About what." Sera glared at him, just waiting.

"Oh, nothing much," the demon said airily. "Just keep an eye on your sister. We might need her again." His grin widened. "Then again, we might just take you instead." Laughing, the demon vanished, the spells with him. Sera turned and started trudging back to her bishis.

"Sera! What were you thinking?!" Kurama asked. He reached her first, Kenshin right behind him.

Sera grimaced. "I kinda wasn't," she said after a moment.

"Damn straight you weren't," Kurama said. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"Yeah. I'm fine, though, so it doesn't matter." Sera gave them all a look that dared them to disagree with her.

"Don't go running off like that again," Graverobber said with a sigh. "Or we might have to take more drastic measures."

"We could attach a leash to you, that we could," Kenshin said speculatively. He didn't realize the full implications of his words until he noticed Kurama and Graverobber both giving him a strange look. "Oro?"

Sera blushed when she caught it as well and huffed. "Shut up," she grumbled, walking past them and towards the city again. "Or I'll lock you in your rooms and never let you out."

Graverobber and Kurama both started laughing while Kenshin merely blushed and followed his trainer in a semi-dignified silence. The dignified part died when Kenshin nearly tripped over a root and ended up crashing into Sera, both of them falling prey to gravity and plummeting to earth. That, of course, only made the other two laugh harder.

"Keep laughing," Sera growled at them, though she was smiling. "One of these days I'll sic Bob-Sue on you!"

"Who?" Kenshin blinked down at her, getting up and offering her a hand up.

"Bob is an air spirit who inhabits a 65 million year old dinosaur skeleton named Sue and goes rampaging through Chicago." Sera grinned and started walking again. "Now I just need to get there…"

The three bishis looked at each other, sighed heavily, and walked after her. Hopefully she wouldn't start cackling or anything…

~*~

When Nyx wanted to get a lot of attention, he was one of the best. So when he slammed open the doors to the nearest hospital and yelled for a nurse, he got about three. Eclipse sighed and followed him in a much more calm and efficient manner.

Half an hour of flurried activity and some harried questions later, Nyx and Eclipse both stood in a room where Belle lay asleep. Some color had returned to her cheeks and there were no visible bruises anywhere on her. The small needle pricks remained on her elbow, however. Especially considering there was an IV drip fixed to her elbow at the moment.

"I don't like this," Nyx muttered, his nose wrinkled. "She smells all _wrong_."

"I know," Eclipse said softly. "We're just lucky there wasn't any more damage."

Nyx laughed hollowly. "More damage? They only took too much of her blood and left her to roll down a goddamn mountain." His eyes glowed faintly. "I don't care when or where we find whoever did this to her. When we do, his life is _mine._"

Eclipse sighed softly and closed his eyes for a few moments. "This is not the appropriate time or place to discuss this," he said softly. "We must wait for Belle to recover before we can go anywhere." He looked Nyx in the eye for several moments to make sure that sunk in. "In the meantime, we do not know where Sera is."

"The kid can look after herself," Nyx growled. Then he paused. "We should find her."

Eclipse snorted. "Yes, we should. Belle would not be happy if she found out we lost her baby sister." With a wry smile, Eclipse sat down. "I cannot stray far from her while she is injured as such. If you would kindly look around for Sera, I would be much obliged. Myself and Belle both."

Nyx sighed. "I'm only doing this because Belle would want me to," he grumbled before vanishing from the hospital room. He appeared outside, in the middle of the town. He started walking around aimlessly, trying to catch Sera's scent. He looked around frequently, pausing when he caught a whiff of her scent from a noodle shop. He glanced inside, but she wasn't there. Neither was she anywhere around, nor was her scent still in the air. Growling and grumbling to himself, Nyx made it to the other side of town and the other entrance before he caught her scent again.

~*~

Sera, meanwhile, had been trying to find Nyx or Eclipse or Belle. She asked at several shops, but no, no one had seen two tall, pale men with dark hair carrying someone that looked like her. Losing hope, she went all the way around town and asked at all the hotels, but no one had seen her sister. Losing hope, she walked over and sat down on a bench in front of a clothing store.

"Shouldn't we check at the hospital?" Kurama asked, sitting next to her.

"I would, but I don't know where it is," Sera said softly. "Besides, I was kind of hoping that they'd be looking for me or waiting somewhere for me."

"They probably took Belle-dono to the hospital first," Kenshin said softly.

Sera sighed softly and pushed herself to her feet. "Yea, probably. We should get going."

"Sera! Stop walking around, dammit!"

The younger trainer blinked and looked over as Nyx approached them. He looked annoyed to say the least.

"Do you know how bloody _hard_ it was to track you?" he growled, crossing his arms over his chest. He glowered at her, prepared for her to make a smart-ass remark, shrug it off, or apologize.

What he was not prepared for was her throwing herself at him and asking rapid-fire questions almost too fast for him to comprehend. He was saved having to act himself by Kenshin calmly dragging his trainer back a few feet.

"Speak slower, Sera-dono. We can't all translate high-speed English, that we can't." Kenshin smiled gently.

Sera nodded, looking rather sheepish. "Where's Belle?"

"At the hospital. We got her a private room," Nyx said. He walked over and took Sera's elbow, leading her through the mid-afternoon crowds. "She's fine now apart from blood loss. They gave her a potion for the bruises. She's still unconscious. Eclipse is with her."

"Okay," Sera said. "I think you got it all. Almost, anyway."

"Almost?" Nyx managed to sound disgruntled. "What did I miss?"

"Why did I end up somewhere else?"

"Have to ask the demon that one. I wasn't in charge." He stepped into the hospital and half-dragged Sera down the hallway to Belle's room.

Duo and Eclipse both looked up when Sera, Nyx, and Kenshin entered. Kurama and Graverobber had tactfully retreated to their bishiballs. Nyx dropped Sera's elbow and Kenshin glowered at him for a moment before he moved over to lean against a wall.

"Sera. Good to know you were close by," Eclipse said softly. "I apologize for earlier. It is harder to teleport somewhere you have never been, doubly so with extra people. I am glad no harm has come to you."

Sera blinked. "Um. It's fine. Really."

Duo laughed quietly and walked over to Sera, starting to braid her hair again. "So did you find anything interesting before Nyx caught up with you?"

"Not really, just a bunch of shops," Sera said softly. "Looks like this is a pretty big place. Good place to go shopping and earn some money."

Duo and Eclipse shared a look and shook their heads. Sera eyed them both rather nervously.

"What with the look?"

"Were you thinking of acquiring a job here, I am certain Belle would want one of us to stay with you at all times," Eclipse explained calmly. "Since now someone has presented him or herself as a threat to Belle, she will extend her protection to you."

Sera bristled. "I don't need protection. I have my three."

Duo snorted. "Yea, and Graverobber's about as useful in a fight as a hairbrush," he said. "Best you can do is beat someone over the head with him."

Sera's lips twitched in a smile. "If he heard you he'd be insulted."

"He'll live. He knows it's true," Duo said mercilessly. "And I volunteer Duzell to stay with you."

Sera paused as a thought hit her. "Don't you think we should worry about getting the others here first?" she asked, glancing around. "Anna and Shadow and Kate are still who-knows-where."

Eclipse raised an eyebrow. "I could teleport them here if they tell me where they are," he said softly. "Though I would prefer not to leave Belle at current."

"Can't Vlad teleport?" Duo asked. "Would make things a lot easier."

"I'll call them," Sera said softly. "Ask them if they can get here. I should probably go get a room too, while I'm at it." She rose and retired from the room, almost running down the hallway. She didn't like hospitals, especially not with her sister lying there like a corpse.

She stopped outside a hotel that was less than a block away from the hospital and pulled out her bishidex. She called Anna quickly.

"What's going on?" Anna demanded immediately, her face showing up on the little screen.

"We found Belle. She's alright, just lost a lot of blood. She's at the hospital right now," Sera said, glancing at Kenshin, who stood unobtrusively next to her. "Do you think you guys can get here?"

"Where is 'here'?" Vlad asked, plucking the bishidex from Anna. The younger trainer and the bishi both ignored Anna's yells and grumbles.

Sera told him the name of the town and where it was. Vlad listened intently before he nodded.

"Very well. I shall tell the others and we shall arrive within ten minutes or so," the vampire count said. "Wait for us in the lobby, if you will."

"Sure. Bring both trainers along, please."

"Very well." With a nod to her, Vlad shut off the comm. link and Sera followed his example.

"Well?" Kurama asked. Sera jumped. She hadn't noticed him come out. "Oh, sorry. But what's going on?"

"Belle's in the hospital, we don't know for how long. Anna and Shadow are coming here, and I'm supposed to wait in the hotel lobby for them before we get rooms." Sera sighed and ran a hand through her hair, idly taking out the braid and twisting it into a bun.

"Sounds like a good plan. And after that?" Kurama watched her intently as Sera led the way into the hotel.

"After that we are going to look for more bishis," Sera said firmly. "I am not going to go back and find the son of a bitch who did that to her and take my revenge out of his hide." She huffed and glared at nothing, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kenshin and Kurama exchanged looks over her head. Their poor trainer had anger management issues. Kenshin sighed while Kurama merely smiled and shook his head.

They didn't have long to wait. No more than five minutes later, Anna and Shadow both walked into the hotel, Vlad following Anna closely.

"We have rooms yet?" Shadow asked.

"Not yet," Sera said. "I figured we'd get two rooms again. I don't know how long Belle's going to be in the hospital for, so…"

Shadow nodded and went to go pay. Anna didn't move, studying Sera intently. Sera blinked at her.

"How are you feeling?" Anna asked, leaning back against Vlad, surprisingly calm.

"Alright, I suppose," Sera muttered with a shrug. "I'll be fine. I'm just worried is all."

Anna nodded, watching her for another moment. "If you want I can teach you how to fight. Nothing major, but at least you'll be able to throw a decent punch."

"Or pretend their knee is a soccer ball," Sera said with a little grin of her own. "I'd like that. Thanks, Anna."

Anna graced her with a smile and nodded before she looked over at Shadow. The eldest trainer of the four silently handed out four card keys, giving two to Sera.

"We're up on the third floor," Shadow said. "I think I got us a corner room or something. Come on." She led the way up to the room. All three trainers were unnaturally quiet, somber. Sera didn't say a word as she slipped into her room; the other two had gotten a room in the corner of the building and so had double windows.

Flopping down on a bed, Sera settled herself to wait. After all, that was all she could do right then. She couldn't go track down anyone, she couldn't stomach any food, and she didn't want to start working any more today. So she'd wait.

~*~

Belle opened her eyes slowly, groaning softly. "Who do I get to hurt for hitting me?" she mumbled through cracked lips, her throat raw and burning.

Nyx immediately loomed over her. "Belle? How do you feel? Does anything hurt?" he asked worriedly. His eyes were darker than normal, more hungry, more agitated. Belle frowned slightly as she realized this.

"Fine. Nothing hurts." She pushed herself up, glancing around the room. Duo was dozing in a chair and Eclipse looked up from idly twisting physical manifestations of his magic into different shapes. "Where am I?"

"Hospital," Eclipse said softly, rising and walking over to her other side. "You're fine, don't worry. You've just lost some blood."

Belle's vision momentarily stained red as she remembered exactly what the man, the scientist, had done to her. She took a slow, deep breath and then let it out again, counting to herself as she did. "Where are the others?"

"In a hotel," Eclipse said. "I checked up on them not long ago. Anna and Shadow are here as well, sharing a room next to Sera's." He paused for a moment. "The doctor said you must stay the night, just in case."

Belle scowled as she looked down at her lap. The IV caught her attention, running up from her elbow. An involuntary shudder rippled down her spine. "Get it out," she muttered, still eyeing the IV drip warily, as if it might attack her.

"What?" Nyx and Eclipse exchanged startled looks.

"I don't care what you have to do, just get it out," Belle said, fighting hard against illogical panic. "I don't want any needles near me. I'll be fine on my own."

Eclipse eyed her for a few moments before deciding that she was going to be stubborn about this and so, instead of fighting her, rose and left to find a doctor. Sometimes his trainer could be so stubborn…

Nyx watched her silently, a small frown on his face. "What happened?" he asked softly.

Belle shook her head. "Don't want to talk about it," she muttered, shifting uncomfortably on the hospital bed.

"Belle—"

"Please. Don't push it this one time," Belle said. "Just let it go. I'll tell you all later so I don't have to keep repeating the story. Once is bad enough."

Nyx frowned but backed off. Snapping was very unlike Belle. He was going to murder whoever did this to her.

~*~

The next day everyone had gathered in Sera's hotel room. Belle sat on one bed with Nyx on one side of her and Sera on the other. Eclipse and Duo stood behind the trainers, along with Kenshin and Kurama. The other two trainers sat on the bed across from them, the bishis all seated in chairs or on the floor or behind their trainers.

Belle didn't look at anyone as she started speaking. "I'm going to make this brief. A demon showed up in the middle of the night and feigned injury to get me to help him. I suffered from a temporary bout of insanity and tried to help him myself. He grabbed me and teleported me somewhere, I'm still not sure where. I was locked in a plain room by myself for a while, I don't know how long, until a man came to see me. He looked like a scientist, and I'm pretty sure he was a trainer. He talked to me for a few minutes before he took some blood from me and left." Belle closed her eyes. "He repeated the process for a while before I fell unconscious. Next thing I knew I was in the hospital."

There was silence for several moments as everyone exchanged looks.

"I've never heard of this," Duo said softly. "Most of the time if somethin' happens, word gets around pretty fast."

"Then perhaps I was the first," Belle said softly. "Either way, what's done is done."

"Are you going to tell the authorities?" Anna asked.

"Already have. I was practically forced to." Belle grimaced and fell silent.

"The hospital staff inquired," Eclipse explained. "They called in a police officer. He recorded everything she said."

Shadow sighed. "Well, this sucks," she said softly. "What now?"

"Now we are not going to think about that," Sera said, glancing at the others. "We won't relax and forget about it, but we will put it out of our minds. This place is a pretty big town. We can go shopping tomorrow and after that we can go look for more bishis."

Belle tuned the others out as they agreed on plans, instead relaxing against Nyx's side. He kept his arm around her. Soon the others departed and Belle got comfortable, laying down on the much more comfortable hotel bed.

The next day passed in a blur of shopping to Belle. Sera, Eclipse, and Nyx stayed with her at all times, and Duo often joined their group as well. Despite her illogical and meaningless (so she told herself) fear and anxiety, she found herself laughing and chatting with them throughout the day. She slept soundly through the night, and when she woke Sera was already up and putting breakfast on the table.

"Ready to go explore strange new places?" Sera asked with a grin.

"As soon as I wake up," Belle replied with a yawn. "Where are we going?"

Sera grinned. "Off to Chicago to visit Harry Dresden."

Belle paused. Oh crap. Well that was going to be very interesting…


	12. Chapter 12

I own nothing except a few characters. Everything else belongs to someone else.

LoneHowl: It's okay, don't worry about it. And just because we found you last doesn't mean that you weren't already corrupt. You three corrupted me, remember? Well, mainly Jess, but still…

ShadowShinigami13: Well I'm glad I can be an inspiration to you. :) I have Creative Writing as well and it usually tries to steal my creativity. XD Anyway, I hope you like this chapter too! I had lots of fun with it.

~*~

Two days later and still they hadn't found a thing. None of them had seen neither hide nor hair of a bishi, though they were apparently in the Dresden territory.

Sera sighed to herself and continued walking, her hands shoved in the pockets of the new jacket she'd gotten in town. They'd been warned that Dresden territory tended to be cold this time of year. Cold and wet. They hadn't been kidding.

It had been raining for five hours straight, since before they got up. Slogging through rain, what felt like a thunderstorm, was not exactly Sera's ideal way of passing the day. Ideally, she could be holed up somewhere with a book, some company, music, just about _anywhere_ dry and warm and safe.

She'd been forced to add on 'safe' to the end of that thought when lightning struck a tree not thirty paces away from the group. Kenshin grabbed her and pulled her back, away from the danger zone, while the others all jumped.

"I say we set up camp here," Shadow said nervously, looking around. "Just set up a few rooms and camp out."

"That might be a good idea," Belle said, eyeing the burnt and crispy-fried tree ahead of them. "Might. Just maybe."

Sera sighed and rolled her eyes at them. "Oh, I know what we can do," she said. "Belle, gimme a few of your bishiballs."

"Why?"

"Because you have more than I do, now hand 'em over."

Belle rolled her eyes before she handed the belt to her younger sister. She rubbed the inside of her elbow through her jacket without thinking about it. Nyx caught her hand and twined their fingers instead.

Sera set up all of Belle's bishiballs right next to each other. "Right, everyone get in."

Belle was the first one in and paused when she saw a door in the side of the room. "What's this?"

"A nifty trick someone in town showed me. You can connect all the bishiballs of one person to each other when they're out, which is really convenient for big groups like this. It's like being in a hotel, only all the rooms are connected with the side doors and the hallway is nonexistent." Sera grinned, very proud of herself.

"D'you mind?" Lucifer grumbled from his bed. "Trying to sleep here." His bat-like wings shifted in irritation.

"Yea yea." Sera rolled her eyes. "You guys might as well let everyone out so we can all stretch out and talk."

Within minutes, all the bishis were crowded into the rooms, along with the trainers. Belle and Sera had taken over Eclipse's PD room, while Shadow and Anna stole Raenef's, since the chibi was with his father all the time anyway.

Sera paused when she thought she heard an explosion outside. "What was that?"

"Hell if I know," Belle muttered, playing with Rae. She proved extremely adept at making baby-cooing noises and laughing. Rae loved her.

"I'm gonna go check it out," Sera muttered, grabbing her shoes and pulling them on again. She left everything else in Eclipse's PD room, leaving the door slightly open too. She ventured outside carefully, looking around. She didn't get more than twenty feet when she saw two figures running towards her.

"Run!" one of them yelled. "Run you idiot! Run!!"

Sera saw something big and hairy behind them, turned, and ran. She didn't even know which two were behind her, but she did know one thing. They'd be safe in the PD rooms. So she sprinted to the door she'd left partially open, flung it all the way open, and them looked back at the two figures. She managed to grab them both and hauled them into the room, slamming the door shut.

For a full half minute, all three stood there, panting and dripping. There was complete silence in the room. Sera glanced at Belle, nodded imperceptibly, and both trainers acted at the same time.

Belle threw a ball at the shorter of the two, while Sera tapped the one closer to her on the arm. Both vanished with strangled yelps, and the two balls rolled and twitched on the floor. Belle's stopped first, Sera's a moment later. With identical grins, the two girls released their new bishis.

A tall man with pale skin and dark hair that was normally artfully and carelessly curled stood, his arms crossed. The second figure was much taller, though he also had pale skin and dark hair.

Belle grinned and squealed, tackling the shorter while Sera grinned and merely hugged the taller.

"Thomas, I get the feeling they know more about us than we know about them," the taller said dryly.

"You think?" Thomas asked from the floor. "Much as I'm enjoying this, I do still have to breathe."

Nyx walked over and picked Belle up easily, grumbling to himself.

Sera grinned as she let go of her new bishi to listen to her bishidex. "Harry Dresden, stage sama." It rambled off a lot of information that she already knew and tuned out, then said, "Nickname?"

Sera debated for a moment. "No nickname."

Thomas, however, had no such luck. As soon as Belle's bishidex finished proclaiming that Thomas was also a sama stage and a White Court vampire (or a psychic vampire, as Sera thought of them), Belle grinned evilly at the question of nickname. "Toe-moss," she replied, watching her new bishi. He groaned and let his head fall into his hands, muttering something about cousins and beauty salons.

"I was not in charge of that!" Thomas said after a moment. "That was my cousin! He ran the salon! I had nothing to do with it!"

Harry snorted something that sounded suspiciously like "liar".

"Ok, I worked there, but still!" Thomas glowered at Belle as she nearly fell over laughing. He crossed his arms over his chest and flipped his hair back over his shoulder with an expert toss of his head.

Sera paused. "Hey. Shouldn't you have Mouse?"

Harry paused and glanced at Thomas, the two sharing a sheepish expression. "Well, about that…"

"And Mister? And Bob?" Belle pressed.

"I need to go back to my apartment," Harry muttered. "The one day I left all my things at home…"

"Can I come see?!" Sera asked, jumping up. "Please?!"

"Sorry, but that's against the rules," Harry said, gently pushing his new trainer back onto the bed. "Oh Murph's gonna get a kick out of this…"

"You bet she is," Thomas replied with a big grin. "Have fun explaining to her."

"You're not coming?"

"Nope. I have everything I need." Thomas grinned. "Besides, I have enough money that it doesn't really matter anyway."

Harry muttered very uncomplimentary things under his breath about the vampire.

"Are you two half-brothers?" Sera asked, looking up and up and up at them curiously.

"Yes," Harry said before Thomas could. "I'm two years younger than he is, and we have another Harry in the family too."

Belle shook her head from her place on Nyx's lap. "So do we have to stay here while you go back to get your things?" she asked Harry.

"Yea. I can't go back until the rain lets up a little anyway," he replied, sitting on the floor next to Sera. "So what's your name?"

"Oh. I'm Sera," his new trainer replied with a smile. "Sorry about that. Slipped my mind."

Harry chuckled and he and Thomas both looked at the other.

"Belle," she said. "This is Nyx, and the rest of my bishis are off that way somewhere." She waved vaguely at the door, since they were on one end of the chain of PD rooms. "So, Thomas… How do you feed?"

The vampire paused. "Well I did work at the salon, and I spent a lot of time with other people, so I could take little snippets from them," he said slowly. "Now, however, if I am to travel with you…" His eyes focused on his trainer and went from dark gray to middle gray, getting lighter. "I will have to feed from you and your companions, I'm afraid."

"As long as you don't take too much from anyone I'm fine with that," Belle said with a shrug. "Just don't do anything weird please."

Thomas grinned. "Oh of course not," he said, glancing at Harry and grinning. "We never do anything weird."

"Shut up, Tommy," Harry shot back with his own smirk.

"Oh I can tell this is going to be fun," Sera muttered to Belle with a little grin as she watched the two half-siblings bicker.

"Oh yea. Even more fun than watching Nyx and Lucifer fight," Belle replied with a grin of her own.

Nyx snorted and watched the others, glancing over at Eclipse. The demon sighed a long-suffering sigh but smiled and picked up his son, retreating to another room where the youngster wouldn't be exposed to the violent tendencies of a vampire and a wizard.

"So what were you two running from?"

The innocent enough question from Sera made both bishis pause. They glanced at each other before looking back at her.

"Giant monkeys," Harry said with a straight face. "Fire-flinging giant demon monkeys."

Sera and Belle exchanged looks before they started laughing. Harry flushed while Thomas muttered things about his half-brother.

"And no puppies to show for it?" Belle asked with a big grin.

Harry scowled at her. "Someone else got there first," he muttered. "Besides, I doubt Mouse would appreciate if I brought a puppy home."

Sera rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Uh huh. Sure. So when do you think you'll go back for your things?"

Harry shrugged, putting his staff and blasting rod off to the side and settling down. "Not before tomorrow, depending on the weather. I'll need to collect Mouse, too."

Sera nodded with a smile. "I've always loved Mouse," she said. "What about Mister?"

Harry snorted. "I'm pretty sure he'll tolerate all this," he said, rolling his eyes at his cat. "How does that work anyway?"

"You have to catch them," Belle replied. "So Mouse and Mister will have their own rooms, like this one. Of course, normally when all the bishiballs are on the belt it's like being in a hotel anyway, so they'll have lots of room to prowl around."

Harry nodded, glancing at Thomas. "Alright. Just don't come any closer to the city than this."

"Why?" Sera sat up a little bit, looking down at Harry. She found that amusing, since normally she'd have to look way up at him. Stupid wizard being too freaking tall…

Thomas and Harry exchanged glances again. "Some certain fae are not too pleased right now," Harry said after a few moments of silence.

"The Sidhe exist here too?" Sera and Belle both stared at Harry, silently demanding answers.

"Yes, the Sidhe exist. All of them. Most of them are rare, though. There are only two or three Mabs at a time, for example, and they're also extremely difficult to catch." Harry sighed softly. "Which is why they're all upset. Recently someone caught a Lea who was supposed to have been in the middle of the territory. So Winter is not very happy right now."

"Oh. Sure. We'll stay far away from scary mean Sidhe," Sera said nervously.

Harry laughed. "Sure, kid. Sure."

"Kid?" Sera bristled. "Just because you're a giant freak of nature—"

"I prefer to think of myself as just abnormally tall and lanky," Harry interrupted with a grin.

"You're still a freak of nature."

"No I'm not. Thomas is," Harry said with a smirk. "It's unnatural for any guy to be so pretty."

"Hey!" Thomas yelped, glaring at his half-brother. "Just because you haven't been laid in two years doesn't mean you have to take it out on me."

"That's too much information," Sera said loudly, ignoring Nyx's snickers. "I really don't want to hear this."

Harry glared at Thomas before he looked up at Sera. "What are the sleeping arrangements?"

"For tonight, we're all sleeping in these rooms," Belle responded instead. "Nyx and I are on this bed, and the other rooms you'd have to check. I think Eclipse has taken over one room for himself and his kid, though."

"I don't suppose you have sleeping bags," Harry muttered.

"Actually, we do," Sera said with a smile. "Lots of them. And pillows and things too."

Belle looked over at Sera and grinned. "We have the beginnings of the makings of a fort."

Sera laughed. "If only one of the rooms were empty we could do that," she said with a wistful smile. "Oh well. One of these days, I suppose."

"What else do you have? Food?" Harry asked rather hopefully.

Sera laughed and grabbed her backpack, dragging it over to her. She pulled out her capsules and let Harry rummage through them. Her laptop came out next, and then she paused, looked at Harry, and put it away again. Better to not risk it.

"Good call," Thomas said. "He killed my last computer."

"That was not my fault," Harry grumbled. "You left your computer on when you told me to check up at your place."

As the two brothers continued to bicker, Sera and Belle looked at each other and grinned. The each grabbed a pillow, counting down to each other silently. Nyx wisely moved away from them.

"ATTACK!"

The yell made both bishis look up, only to receive two big whops in the face from the pillows.

Thomas sat there sputtering indignantly for a moment while Harry blinked. Then the wizard grinned and raised his shield spell around himself, smirking smugly. Sera pouted before she helped Belle gang up on Thomas. The vampire flailed helplessly.

Anna entered the room and pouted. "Aw, dammit! How come I don't get one?"

Belle and Sera looked up from where they'd pummeled Thomas into a corner using their pillows. Harry had been kind enough to expand his shield to cover his half-brother as well.

"You can always get a Michael. Or a Molly," Sera replied.

Anna shook her head. "Michael is great and all, but no. Molly, maybe." Her eyes suddenly glittered. "Ooooor I could always get one of the high Sidhe… Or a Luccio."

"No Sidhe," Sera said quickly. "I don't know how well that would work out. I don't care who else you get, but no Denarians and no Sidhe."

Anna pouted again, but then shrugged. "Ok. I'll go find myself a Luccio or a Murphy."

"Yes, you can both commiserate with each other on being short," Harry said from behind the safety of his shield.

Anna's eyes narrowed. "Vlad. Get 'im."

Vlad sighed and shook his head, appearing just behind his trainer. "Why?"

"Because I said so, that's why," Anna said with a big grin. "I suppose you don't have to. Not this time anyway." She grinned up at the taller vampire count. "Come on, let's go find a Murphy!"

"It's still pouring outside," Vlad said, his voice flat.

Anna sighed. "You're such a spoilsport," she muttered. "Fine, I'll just go take Ally-wally with me instead." She vanished through the door again, supposedly to go find her demon. Vlad followed her, rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath in a foreign language.

"What just happened?" Thomas asked after a moment.

"Better that you don't ask," Belle said briskly. "Safer for your health, too."

Harry dropped the shield spell and got up, towering over both the trainers and standing taller than Nyx even. He smirked faintly at that and started munching on some food he'd found. Thomas stood as well, shaking his hair back behind his shoulders so it was casually, artfully careless.

"Is there anything else to do around here?" the vampire asked, stretching. His shirt rode up, revealing perfectly muscled abs. Sera and Belle both paused to look, much to Nyx's annoyance.

"Um. There are TVs in every room," Sera said absently.

"I have some board games and cards and such," Belle said, a little more alert than Sera. She leaned back against Nyx, smiling when he immediately wrapped his arms around her.

"I have a laptop too," Sera said. "So long as Harry doesn't get close to it."

Harry scowled at his trainer and crossed his arms over his chest, adjusting his leather duster only slightly.

"You guys have any movies?" Thomas asked, rifling through the nearest backpack with interest.

"Yea," Belle said before Sera could reply. "They're all in a capsule, though. Very handy for keeping things uncluttered. As long as poor Mr. Dresden sits on the other side of the room, we should be able to watch a movie in here."

"Let's watch Repo!" Sera said before anyone else could say anything. "Can we? Pleeeeeaaaaase?!"

"What's Repo?" Thomas asked, looking over at Harry. His half-sibling shrugged.

"Oh fine," Belle said, though she was grinning. "I don't suppose there's a bigger room somewhere…"

"Um, hold on," Sera said, going through to the other rooms. She returned nearly five minutes later. "No, nothing bigger. But in Rae's room they removed the bed, so it's got a lot more room, and the TV's set up on the wall so everyone could see it."

"Right, we're taking over Rae's room." Belle walked next door, into Raenef's room, and smiled. "Eclipse, can we use Rae's room? We want to watch a movie but there's not enough room."

Eclipse chuckled quietly and stood. "Of course. Is it something Rae will want to see?" He paused, examining the two deadpan looks from the trainers, and nodded. "That's what I thought. We'll be in my room." He picked up his son, who was already half-asleep, and carried him next door. The door shut quietly and Sera went to go tell the others that they were watching Repo. Anna, Shadow, Pavi, Luigi, Graverobber, and a few other bishis migrated into the room to watch as well. Someone had managed to make a big bowl of popcorn, and someone else (everyone suspected Anna, since she was already bouncing off the walls) had procured sweets from somewhere. The bishis and trainers made quick work of covering the floor in layers of sleeping bags to make it more comfortable, then passing around pillows to people. Though it was only 3 in the afternoon, Shadow and Anna were already planning to stay up watching movies all day and night. Thus the necessity of passing out pillows to the others.

Belle was sitting a little ways back, with Anna, Shadow, and the three from the movie in front of her. Nyx sat with the trainer, along with some of her bishis. Sera, Harry, and Thomas ended up behind Belle, closer to the TV than anyone thought Harry would venture, but everything worked fine. Kenshin sat with them, and the rest of the bishis that had decided to watch were sprawled out across the rooms.

Of course, since Luigi, Pavi, and Graverobber were all from the movie, they had decided that acting out certain scenes was in order. They pulled in Belle and Sera and Anna to act out things with them, with Shadow being used as a back up. Kate got dragged in at one point as well, to be a victim.

They managed to get all the way through two movies and half way through a third before people started demanding dinner. Belle and Sera got up and went to go cook (for which most everyone was secretly glad; neither Anna nor Shadow were the greatest cooks in the world) while everyone else broke off from watching to wait for food. Kate helped serve, passing plates around and checking on the two trainers every so often, since they were cooking in another room. Dinner was consumed very quickly, and one bishi from each trainer was roped into doing the dishes, along with Kate to watch over them. As soon as everyone was back, they started the movie again. Some of the bishis had gone off to do other things, but most of the group stayed.

Unfortunately for them, Harry was a firm believer in Murphy's law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So it was true for them. Around 11, half-way through the fourth movie, all the lights died at exactly the same time with a loud pop. There were startled yells and a cry from Raenef.

"Harry Dresden!" Sera accused, turning in the dark to glare at her bishi.

Harry grinned innocently, scooting away. "I didn't do it?"

With muttered curses and grumbles, people drifted away to go to bed. Belle and Nyx procured a corner of the room, piling up a few sleeping bags, and Sera took the opposite side of the room, with Kenshin sitting near her head. Harry and Thomas both settled down near Sera, between the two trainers. The last thing Sera heard before she tried to go to sleep (she didn't dare even _touch_ her iPod with Dresden around) was the sullen mutter from Harry:

"I swear I didn't mean to do it this time…"


	13. Chapter 13

I own nothing but a few characters, as always.

LoneHowl: Yea, yea, sure. I love how we're just having a conversation instead of you doing actual reviews.

~*~

It was two days before the rain let up enough to let everyone out. By that time they were all a little cranky and a little stir-crazy from being inside for so long. None of the trainers even tried to put any of the bishis away; almost everyone wanted to be out. The only exceptions were the vampires, who decided to sleep instead, since it was the middle of the day.

"You can wander around here, but don't go any farther that way," Harry said, pointing. "We have a couple people on patrol, and none of them would be nice to any trainers they caught around here."

Sera nodded. "Alright. We'll meet you back here in an hour. Is that okay?"

Thomas nodded. "No problem." He grinned cheekily and waved before heading through the trees. Harry followed him, looming over his half-brother as the two started bickering again.

Anna grinned and told them she'd meet them in an hour as well before she headed off on her own, her bishis following her. Shadow shook her head and said she was going to stay there with Kate and hold the fort down in case it started raining again.

Which left Sera and Belle to go wander off in the opposite direction of Anna. The two trainers walked slowly, keeping track of their various bishis running around and chattering rather loudly. Nyx, Eclipse, and Kenshin stayed close to the two girls, though the others just wandered around. The weather was fairly nice after all the rain, if not a little humid.

It took the girls a little more than an hour to get back to the meeting spot (after briefly forgetting which way to go; Eclipse had to put them back on course) and the others were waiting there. Anna was grinning at a blonde-haired woman even shorter than herself.

"Oh no," Belle muttered, looking at Sera with wide eyes.

"She caught a Murphy," Sera finished, shaking her head and trying hard not to laugh.

"This is going to be interesting," Belle muttered, going forward to meet them.

"Alright," Harry said. He put a hand on Mouse's head; Mouse's haunches came up to Harry's waist, making the dog at least four feet tall. Sera stared for several moments before she shook herself out of it and offered him a ball. Mouse's nose pressed against the little release button and he vanished. Mister, the thirty-pound gray tom cat with no tail, was a little more indignant, swatting the ball instead of giving in gracefully, but he gave in all the same.

Harry grinned when Mouse reappeared and Mister did not. "I think Bob just stays with me or in your backpack or something," he said. "Other than that, I have everything." Sera could see the .44 that Harry used frequently, along with his blasting rod inside the leather duster. He was walking with his staff, looking rather amused.

"Right." Sera grinned up at him. "I get the feeling this is going to be really fun now."

"Oh just wait," Harry said with a grin. "It gets even better."

Thomas walked over to Belle with his normal casual swagger, holding something in his jacket. "Since Mouse stays with Harry and you said you wanted a dog," he said, watching his trainer as he pulled out a gray-and-black puppy, handing it to her. "Here you go."

Belle stared at the puppy for a moment, then at Thomas. She handed the puppy to Nyx for a moment before she tackled Thomas with a very happy squee. Nyx looked rather annoyed at that. Thomas laughed quietly and set her down on the ground again, his hand brushing against her neck briefly, feeding a little bit from her. Since Thomas was a different kind of vampire, he didn't drink blood. He fed on energy. And Nyx did not like that one bit.

Nyx immediately slid one arm around Belle, pulling her back against his chest and glaring over her head at Thomas. The puppy settled down in Belle's arms, falling asleep with its head against her chest. Belle glanced between the two of them before she sighed and turned around, starting to push Nyx back away from Thomas. The vampire blinked.

Sera rolled her eyes and turned back to Harry, ruffling up Mouse's ears. "So do you know that Murphy?"

Harry tried not to smile. "Yes, actually. That's the Murphy that I was going to go tell what happened. Except she's now in the same position."

"Just be glad I don't want to bring anything with me, Dresden," Murphy called. She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "stupid-ass wizard". The effect was ruined by her smile.

Harry rolled his eyes and looked down at his trainer. "So we all know each other."

Sera couldn't help but laugh. "Oh yea, this is going to be lots of fun," she muttered. "How long does it take the dogs to grow up?"

Harry shrugged. "Not nearly as long as you'd think," he said, watching the ball of black and gray fur. "They grow pretty quickly. That puppy will hit a growth spurt in another week or so, and then she won't stop growing until she's about the size of Mouse." He glanced at his own dog, ruffling his ears affectionately.

Sera smiled to herself as she watched the others for a little while, watching everyone just get settled in and accept the new arrivals. As the sun set, the vamps came out again, all of them flocking over to Anna and demanding blood. (Anna kept an extra fridge-capsule with her that held many containers of blood for the vamps; they tended to get persnickety and snappish if they didn't have blood and couldn't hunt.) Between Harry and Thomas, everyone was amused enough to settle down by 10 or so. Once again, a few rooms were set up and everyone slept in the rooms provided. Most of the bishis went to their own rooms to give the trainers more space.

The next morning Sera woke with a start as thunder sounded outside. The door was open a crack, letting in a gust of cold air. Shivering, Sera stood and went to close the door, pausing when a wet nose pushed the door open. Mouse trotted inside primly and shut the door for Sera. He sat down in front of her, wagged his tale, and licked her hand. Sera laughed quietly and rubbed his head, then his stomach when he rolled over.

By this time, Harry and Kenshin were both awake and watching her. Kenshin merely smiled and went to go give Mouse some love and attention while Harry listened to the storm outside.

"Unless you know where a town is, preferably close, I wouldn't go outside if I were you," Harry said, leaning back against the wall. "Sounds like Mab is still throwing a fit."

"I know," Sera said, shaking her head. "Oh well. Not much we can do, right? Maybe we can ask Eclipse to take us back to town. I'm kinda sick of staying inside all the time. If we were at a hotel, at least we could run around the hallways." She grimaced and plopped down on her bed again.

Kenshin chuckled. "I'm sure Belle will agree with you, that she will," he said, sounding amused. "Would you like me to go see if they're awake, Sera-dono?"

Sera smiled. "Thanks, Kenshin. I'd appreciate that."

Kenshin smiled and stood, walking through the side door connecting their room to Belle's. He came back two minutes later and nodded. "Belle's going to get the others up, that she is. Eclipse will take us back to town."

Sera smiled. "Good. I can go get some money there, finally." She glanced at her two bishis that were out. "How do you two feel about gym fights?"

Harry grinned. "Sounds fun," he said, glancing at Kenshin. "I'm up for it."

Kenshin nodded. "As am I, Sera-dono," he said softly. "I know Kurama-san would agree."

Sera nodded and packed up her things idly, carefully tucking away her iPod in her pocket. "Right. We'll have to look for a gym while we're there. Maybe Graverobber can learn to do something besides run away."

Kenshin bit his lip trying not to laugh while Harry looked both confused and indignant.

"There is always a time to run away," the wizard said, aiming for wise and imperious. He failed.

"I know," Belle said patiently. "Unfortunately, Graverobber doesn't know much else. He knows how to rob graves and run away."

"I can see how that might be problematic," Harry said with a faint smirk. "I'm sure Thomas could teach him how to use the shotgun."

"…Wouldn't that be sort of illegal?" Sera asked.

"Yea. It's still illegal. Doesn't mean we're going to give it up," Harry said with a smirk.

Sera shook her head. "Honestly…" All three of them paused when Belle opened the side door.

"Whenever you lot are ready to go, we're ready," she said. She looked a little more pale than usual, but cheerful nonetheless. "We have to go outside, though."

Sera nodded. "Alright. We'll be out in a minute." She looked at her two. "Alright, I'll let you all out again once we're back in town."

With some grumbling, the two went back into their balls, Mouse following them. Sera left the room and shut the door, which promptly disappeared. She shook her head to get some of the rain out of her face and walked over to Eclipse and Nyx. Nyx had his arms wrapped around Belle and Eclipse looked rather impatient. Anna emerged from the rain a few moments later, Shadow following her sleepily.

"Are we all ready?" Eclipse asked, looking at the three trainers. At their nods, he beckoned them forward, putting one hand on Sera's shoulder, the other on Anna's, and Shadow took hold of his robes. The demon nodded to Nyx and all of them disappeared.

Sera was a little disoriented when she appeared outside the city. She followed the others, stumbling a little, looking around. It was still raining there, and not many people were around. Those that were braving the rain were racing for cover as quickly as they could.

All four trainers showed their dexes to the guard outside the city and they looked for the nearest hotel. Warm water, a hot meal, and then a comfy bed were top on Sera's list of priorities. Naturally, they had to walk half-way across town to find a hotel that had open rooms, and those rooms were, luckily, next to each other. Everyone agreed that three rooms were needed, what with the ever-growing number of bishis, and they got the three rooms at the end of a hall; one on each side of the hallway and one smaller room in the very middle. All three were connected, specifically for large parties like their own.

They all ordered room service (getting a 'family plan' that was supposed to serve 6; they got a few of those) as well as bottles of blood for the vamps before everyone settled down in their own rooms, leaving the doors open so people could wander around.

Sera found herself sharing a room with Anna this time. As soon as it was decided that three rooms were to be rented, Eclipse stole one and refused to give it back, saying that Belle deserved her own room. Despite playful grumbling, no one really minded. Shadow and Kate took the second room, and Sera and Anna got the last room. Pavi, Luigi, and Graverobber were all talking and probably plotting something, darting nervous looks at their trainers. Anna's Eric was sleeping sprawled across one bed, and Vlad was watching over everyone to keep them out of trouble. The newest bishis in the group were watching everyone else and staying close to their trainers. Harry did so of his own free will, having found Sera to be quite fun once you got her talking. Al had little choice; Anna was playing with his hair and requesting (more like demanding) that he change his appearance for her. Al did not look very pleased with this, generally. But Sera could tell he was. Sure, he grumbled a lot, but he never actually tried to do anything differently, and it wasn't just because Anna was his trainer. He liked the attention. Who'd have ever guessed that a demon involved in training and trading familiars would be an attention whore?

As soon as food arrived, everyone pounced on it. Sera sat back, waiting for the rush to die down instead of getting murdered. To her surprise, Anna came back carrying two plates with two sodas tucked against her side. She handed a plate to the rather stunned younger trainer and dropped a soda in her lap before grinning and sitting next to her.

"So how do you like it here so far?" Anna asked, munching on the spaghetti.

"I love it here," Sera said. "Especially with Belle. We were always really close, you know, so it was great to be able to be with her again. Not that I'd noticed before, but now that I do remember everything those ten months seemed kinda… boring."

Anna nodded. "I know what you mean. I don't have any siblings, but I left my dog and a few cats at home," she said softly. She grinned as Mister decided to lay down between the two, quickly becoming a purring gray ball of fur. "So for a while I was looking out to find a kitten or a puppy or something."

"Did you find any?" Sera asked.

Anna shook her head. "No. I'm still looking, but I have all these guys instead," she said with a fond smile. "Besides, I figure if I come across something like Mister, who's from a book or anime or something, I can always catch that for company if I wanted to. I don't think Vlad approves of that line of thinking, though. Of course, he doesn't much like animals apart from horses and wolves, so he's greatly limited."

Sera laughed. "Mouse could take down a wolf any day and still be ready for more. Isn't that right, Mouse?"

The big black and gray Temple dog looked up at the trainer and wagged his tail, rolling over and begging for food. Both trainers laughed and gave him bits of food when they thought the other wasn't looking. Mouse got very well-fed. So did Mister. The girls gave him bits of chicken and steak, which the cat daintily accepted, deeming the two giggling girls worthy of feeding him.

The day passed slowly but not so slowly as to drive anyone crazy. Well, crazier than they already were, anyway.

Sera blinked when her Dex started beeping at her. She dug it out of her backpack and opened it, blinking at the sight of Richi on the small screen.

"Sera!" Richi said, grinning broadly. He pushed his glasses farther up his nose. "Hey, how are you?"

"I'm fine," Sera said, a little startled. "I'm sorry I never called you. Things got kinda crazy…"

"I know what you mean," Richi said feelingly. "Anyway, who have you caught so far?"

Sera gave him her list, going through it mentally. "Kenshin, from Rurouni Kenshin. Graverobber from a movie called Repo. Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. And I just caught Harry Dresden along with his cat Mister and his wooly chammoth Mouse, from the Dresden files."

Richi laughed. "Wooly chammoth huh? I've never heard that one before."

"Here, I'll show you," Sera said, and turned the dex to show Mouse. She put her own hand on Mouse's head so Richi could see just how big the dog was. "Stand up for a minute, Mouse."

Mouse seemed to sigh before he hauled himself to his feet, standing up and shaking himself off. Sera laughed when she heard Richi whistle.

"Ok, you're right. He is a wooly chammoth. Or a pony or something," he said as Sera turned the dex back to herself, giving Mouse a leftover piece of beef for his troubles. "Anyway, I've caught a Nuriko from Fushigi Yugi, a Megumi from Rurouni Kenshin, a Yukina from Yu Yu Hakusho, and a Sora and a Kairi from Kingdom Hearts."

"I love those games!" Sera said, settling back on her bed. "That sounds like a lot of fun. How do you like it here?"

"Good, it's good," Richi said. He glanced at something off to his side. "Are you traveling with anyone?"

"Yea, I'm still with my sister and her two friends. Why?" Sera asked, more than a little confused.

"Well, I just met this guy named Adam," Richi said. "He said he thought he met someone that looks like you or your sister, but he's not sure."

"Oh. I'll ask Belle sometime," Sera said. She glanced at the others, crowding around her in a curious half-circle of people. "I'll call you again later, alright? We're about to have dessert."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Richi said instantly. "It's no problem. Talk to you later."

"See ya," Sera said before she closed her dex. She sighed and shook her head. "You lot are like vultures."

"Not vultures," Anna said innocently. "More like kittens. Curious to the point of danger."

Sera had to laugh at that; it was true, for the most part. "That was Richi. You met him once," she told Anna. "He arrived here the same day as me and we were going to keep in touch, but that failed miserably." Someone muttered "epic fail" from somewhere in the crowd, but one glare made everyone fall silent again. "So that's it. Go amuse yourselves elsewhere. Go on, shoo."

Grumbling, they all dispersed, going to do other things. Anna quickly engaged Sera in conversation again, grinning and making the younger trainer laugh.

Belle, Eclipse, and Nyx all watched from the middle room. Belle smiled and shook her head, leaning back against Nyx.

"She seems happy here," Eclipse observed quietly.

"Yea," Belle agreed. "That's good. I used to worry about her a lot. She would always get into so much trouble and I'd have to help her out of it." She smiled as she watched Sera and Anna play around.

"I can see how that would make you close," Eclipse said softly.

Belle nodded, coughing quietly. "Yea. I just hope nothing too bad happens to her here."

Nyx frowned and put his cold hand against her too-warm forehead. "All that rain wasn't good for you," he said softly. "You should rest, love."

Belle shook her head. "I'm fine. I want to spend some more time with them first."

Eclipse sighed and shook his head, muttering something about stubborn trainers. He got up and went to get drinks for them, glancing back at Belle. She looked pale, her cheeks flushed with fever, though she still looked happy. Shaking his head, Eclipse merely hoped that someone would find some new medicine or at least find a way to keep the illness at bay. He liked seeing Belle happy like this, but none of them liked her being so sick. At the rate she was pushing herself, though, they all knew she wouldn't last more than a year. And all any of them could do was hope and go to every single doctor they could find.


	14. Chapter 14

As usual, I own nothing except a few trainers. Sorry it took me so long, folks, I've been working on a novel that grabbed me by the hand and wouldn't let go.

LoneHowl: Nah, it's all good. Besides, I can taunt you and bother you this way. Mwahahahaha!

SS13: My pleasure! I'm glad I could help out at all. I totally know what you mean when you say you have writer's block and things are just going so slow. That happens to me all the time. That's why I hardly ever finish things… But I'm going to finish this if it kills me! XP And Eliora will show up again next chapter, no worries.

PeaceLoveOcelot: Yes, and the plot thickens! *dun dun DUUUUUUN!* Don't worry, you'll have all your questions answered before the story is finished. Maybe in this chapter I'll start answering questions instead of posing them. Maybe. Possibly. If you're all lucky.

ShiShi: A new reviewer! Yay! I love new faces! Thanks for the review, and I hope you like this chapter as well. Maybe you guys will get a few hints too… :)

~*~

"Are you going to tell them?" The gentle question pulled Belle out of her hazy half-sleeping state. She looked up faintly from where she lay next to Nyx, her head pillowed on his chest. They hadn't done anything since he said she was too tired and too sick, but she still liked to cuddle with him. Not her fault she was a cuddly person.

A shrug was his main response. The trainer rested her head on his chest again, her eyes partially closed as she moved closer to him. His arm slid around her, comforting her.

"You should. Before it's too late."

"I will," Belle promised. "Just… not now. Once I tell them, they'll all look at me pityingly and they'll treat me differently. Sera won't like it either, since I was always so healthy back home. When I tell them, I want to be sure that there's no other choice, and then I'll tell them everything at one time. That will be easier than trying to tell them separately and having to explain the story several times."

"What about the others?" Nyx asked softly.

"Well, my batch all know," Belle replied. "When the time comes, I'll just… I'll probably give them an option of returning to their homes or going with Sera or one of the others." She closed her eyes faintly in pain. "I'll keep Duo with me. He was there for the beginning of this all, it's only fit that he be there for the ending."

Nyx pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head gently. "Don't think about it too much," he said softly. "It'll make you upset. And you still have time left. Don't worry about it yet. We'll take care of you. I promise. We'll make sure everything happens as you want it. Don't worry." He kissed the top of her head, holding her closer. He was dreading the upcoming months more than most of the others. The only two more concerned than him were possibly Eclipse and Duo. Belle was right; Duo had been there since she had gotten ill, and he wouldn't leave her even if she released him. Eclipse had adopted Belle before she had even caught him, helping her out without her asking. They were the only two who had known Belle longer than he had, and Nyx was rather grateful for that. If not for those two, Belle wouldn't have survived the initial stages of the illness, and he never would have met her and would still be wandering around by himself, most likely. It hurt him more than he ever imagined it would to think about life afterwards without her.

When he was sure Belle was asleep, Nyx let his hand rest over her belly, his face nestled in her hair. He didn't want to lose her, but he didn't see any way to save her at the moment. There wasn't much any of them could do, and it was eating him alive. If he thought it would help, he'd have turned her ages ago, but he knew she didn't want that. Not yet at least. With a soft sigh, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

~*~

Sera was the first to wake the next morning and found she was cuddled between Kenshin and Thomas, with her face against Kenshin's shoulder and Thomas much closer than she normally would let anyone (except her sister, of course). She froze, looking for a way out, and shifted minutely. Kenshin had one arm draped over side, up around the middle of her back, while Thomas's arm flopped over her thigh. Feeling herself blush, Sera started trying to squirm out of the extremely awkward positioning. Why oh why did she ever think it would be wonderful to be surrounded by men?!

Thomas started shaking behind her, and Sera looked over her shoulder to find his gray eyes open and his shoulders shaking with laughter. She glared at him and managed to elbow him in the gut, making him yelp. That, of course, woke Kenshin, who blinked groggily before he yelped and fell off the bed trying to scoot away too fast. Sera used her opportunity to shove Thomas off the other side of the bed, where he lay sprawled on Harry, both of them swearing and managing to tangle themselves up even more. Sera shot off the end of the bed, glancing at where Kenshin and Kurama were disentangling themselves, and saw Graverobber over with Pavi and Luigi. As soon as she knew all her boys were present and accounted for, she grabbed her bag and darted into the bathroom, mortified.

She turned the water on loud enough to drown out the noise from the room as Anna and some of hers woke up from all the noise they'd made. Still blushing furiously, she peeled off her tank top and pajama pants that she'd worn to bed and pulled on loose black jeans and a loose t-shirt. When someone knocked on the door, Sera didn't answer immediately. She washed her face to try to bring the color down and tried to comb out her hair before she opened the door. Anna stood there, looking a little grumpy.

"What's with the racket?" she grumped, her own hair messy with sleep.

"Thomas," Sera said shortly.

Anna eyed her for a moment before she nodded. "Since we're up, do you want to go check out the stores? I wanted to go see about a few things."

"Sure," Sera said, a little surprised. Before now, Anna hadn't made any particular attempts to get close to her, but it seemed now was a good time. She smiled at the shorter trainer, who grinned back, and motioned for her to shoo. Sera obligingly moved out of the way and went over to brush out her hair. It wasn't cooperating.

"Here, let me," Thomas said softly. He was still trying not to grin, but at least he didn't say anything about how they'd woken up.

Sera grudgingly handed over her brush and Thomas had her sit in front of him on the bed, teasing all the knots out of her hair and braiding it quickly. He even twisted it into a bun and secured it in place with a few jeweled metal stick-things. He grinned and patted the top of her head. "All done, darling."

Sera rolled her eyes but turned and gave him a little smile. "Feeding off me now are we Thomas?"

Thomas grinned, completely unrepentant. "It's easier to take little bits from lots of people," he said softly before he moved off to offer Anna the same treatment. She agreed hesitantly but didn't appear to regret it. Vlad had pulled out a bottle of synthetic blood for himself and watched to make sure everything was kept in order.

Sera shook her head and pulled on shoes and socks, glancing at Kenshin. He shrugged slightly and retied his hair. Sera thought it looked rather nice loose, but she would never actually say that. It was his hair, after all. A few of the others got ready to go as well while others retreated to get more sleep. Kenshin, Harry, Thomas, Vlad, and Murphy all stayed out. The rest retreated.

"How come you're coming, Thomas?" Sera asked with a little frown as she grabbed her backpack. Anna wasn't taking hers, instead deciding to use Sera as her pack mule.

"Easier for me to feed," Thomas said easily. "I asked Belle and she said she's fine with it as long as I don't piss anyone off." He grinned easily.

Harry snorted and rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath. "You? Piss someone off? Never," he said, sarcasm practically dripping off his voice. "I mean, gosh, Thomas, you've only gotten your ass kicked how many times?"

Thomas shot Harry a glare. "Shut up. Not like your record is any better than mine, pretty boy. The only reason you're not a splat on the pavement right now is because of Mouse."

Said dog aka wooly chammoth looked up and blinked at Thomas with big innocent brown eyes, as if asking, "Who, me?" Sera laughed quietly and ruffled Mouse's ears. He promptly turned his attention to her, leaning against her legs.

Harry grumbled and shut up. Sera chuckled and continued petting Mouse as Anna yawned and headed for the door. The group of them trooped out and downstairs before going outside. It wasn't raining anymore, but it looked threatening.

The first shop they visited was a weapons shop. Thomas and Harry both looked at several things, very interested, while Vlad and Anna had a long discussion about what kind of weapon suited Sera. Kenshin smiled slightly and left his own blade alone. He knew it well enough already, and he liked it plenty. He didn't need anything else.

"I'm sorry Vlad but I don't think Sera is the type to stand around cackling madly and shoving pikes up people's—" Anna said, cut off quickly by Sera.

"Let's not go there, shall we?" Sera said, eyeing them both nervously. "Do I even need a weapon?"

"Yes," both Vlad and Anna replied at the same time before returning to their bickering, now debating the advantages and disadvantages of axes.

Sera sighed to herself and walked off, away from the two. Murphy was with Thomas and Harry, and sent Sera a look that said she knew exactly how Sera felt. Smiling at the woman, Sera continued to look at the weapons adorning the walls. Katanas, knives, rapiers, daggers, staves, needles, just about any weapon imaginable was crammed along the walls and in racks. Kenshin followed her as she examined all the weapons, testing a rapier. She'd always liked how they looked, but it felt wrong in her hands. Finally her eyes alighted on a smaller blade, Japanese styled but shorter than a katana. A dark blue sheath held it, and the blade rang softly as she pulled it out. It fit well in her hand, and it was a comfortable length that she didn't think she'd accidently slice someone open by misjudging a distance.

"A kodachi," Kenshin said softly. "A blade that's used mostly in defense, shorter and lighter than a katana, enabling the user to be faster. Aoshi would be a better teach with those than I would, that he would." He smiled at her.

"I think I like it," Sera said a little hesitantly. "I mean, if those two are going to make me get something, I'd want it to be this. I think I can handle this and not look like a total fool."

Kenshin laughed softly. "You never look like a total fool, Sera-dono," he said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. "Not even when you go chasing off after murderous demons without us."

Sera groaned and dropped her head into her hands. "You're never going to let that die, are you?" she mumbled.

Kenshin smiled. "Never." He gently took the kodachi from her and looked it over for any potential flaws, testing it before he nodded and took the sheath as well. "This is a good blade, that it is."

"A kodachi?" Anna pouted. "I was hoping for something a little bigger but it's a good start. I'll make Aoshi give you a few pointers." She grinned in an almost evil way that made Sera rather nervous. She walked over and snatched the kodachi from her. "I'm buying it for you. Looks like Murphy found a gun anyway, and I'm sure Vlad will demand pikes. Not like he doesn't have a whole closet full of them."

"Er, thanks," Sera said, following Anna up to the register. The other bishis slowly gathered in from the other parts of the store while Anna paid, and within a few minutes Sera was debating whether to put the kodachi on her belt or put it in her backpack. She opted for the backpack. Less likely to poke someone's eye out with it in there. Kenshin seemed to approve of this course of action, while Harry merely shook his head and muttered things under his breath. The register had nearly died when he approached and he had been forced to go back to the front of the store.

"How do any of you ever pay for things?" Sera asked as they walked down the street, looking in at various other shops.

"Lots of places carry extra calculators and things in case there's too much magic in one spot," Thomas explained. "We all carry around some cash as well as credit cards and such."

"I only ever use cash," Harry said. "Credit cards don't work with me. They die. But at least they die quickly." He grinned.

Sera laughed at that. "Well, I guess it's a good thing these seem to be immune to magic, then," she said, tapping her bishidex.

"Well they were made specifically for that kind of interference," Anna said, sounding serious for once. "If they weren't, bishidexes all over the place would be dying and in need of repair. There would be too much work for any number of people to handle. I'm sure that's one of the initial problems they had when they first got this place started. They've made a few modifications just in the time I've been here, so I'm sure there have been hundreds."

Everyone assembled stared at Anna for several long seconds. She blinked. "What? I can be smart and calm when I want to!" she objected. "It's just more fun to be nuts!" That said, she jumped on Vlad again. Everyone sighed and continued walking. Anna was still Anna.

"Excuse me, could you help me?"

The voice came from a very small and petite girl with big gray eyes and thick chestnut hair in curls down her back. She wore normal hiking gear, and she looked almost nervous as she looked at the two trainers.

"Sure thing," Sera said, stepping forward. "Please excuse her, she forgot to take her medicine this morning." She grinned at the smaller trainer.

The answering smile was brilliant. "I was wondering where the nearest hotel is. Yue isn't being helpful and Clark is too busy laughing at my sense of direction to be any help." She pouted slightly.

Sera grinned. "It's right down this street," she replied. "You can't miss it." She paused before she stuck out her hand. "My name's Sera."

"Eliora," the girl replied. "Nice to meet you! How long have you been here?"

"Um." Sera paused to think. "Not all that long. Not quite a month. You?"

"A few months," Eliora said, glancing at the Clark Kent standing next to her. Sera recognized him (very vaguely) as being from Smallville. "This is Clark, Yue is back there, Nuriko is sleeping, Alzeid is somewhere, and this is Legolas."

Sera smiled. "Nice to meet you all. This is Harry Dresden, his half-brother Thomas who actually isn't mind but is tagging along, and Kenshin is mine as well. Kurama and my other bishi, Graverobber, are in their balls right now. Vlad and Murphy are both Anna's. Anna is the one that's…" Sera paused as she actually saw what Anna was doing and put her head in her hand with a sigh. "She's the crazy one."

"The one hanging upside-down from a pointy metal stick?" Eliora supplied.

"Yea. That's her."

Eliora nodded. "Do you know how full the hotel is?"

"No clue," Sera said honestly. "I'm not in charge of that department of internal affairs, I'm just the newbie of the group and entertainment." She grinned. "Maybe we'll meet up there again sometime, eh?"

"Sure thing!" Eliora said with a smile. "I'll keep an eye out for you."

"Same here," Sera replied with a smile. "Have fun with your batch. See you later!"

Eliora waved to them and went off down the street with her bishis. Clark appeared to tease her about something, because she punched his arm.

Shaking her head with a smile, Sera turned and yelped. Anna was right behind her now. Grinning like a maniac on crack, Anna grabbed her wrist and dragged her into another shop, this one a more Goth-type shop. Sera tried not to groan, failed, and hung her head, giving up on trying to get away. Hopefully she'd survive all this…

A few hours later, both girls returned to the hotel with several bags each and lunch for the entire group. Sera knocked on the door connecting their room to Belle's, but no one answered. There was complete silence from the other side. Thomas was quiet, merely watching her. Sera knocked twice more before giving up and going to go tell Shadow instead. Anna didn't even notice, too busy setting out lunch and sampling things.

The three ate lunch, Kate staying with them and munching on things too. None of them had seen Belle since the night before, and Sera was starting to get worried. The other two told her not to worry; Belle would wander off on her own for a day and come back that night, cheerful as ever. When all three spent the rest of the day wandering around town and window shopping (Sera was starting to feel bad about not having any money of her own, but Anna and Shadow both said they had lots anyway and weren't likely to stop getting any, so Sera might as well enjoy it), they turned out to be correct. Belle turned up at dinnertime, smiling and chatting with them. She sat next to Sera and talked to her the most.

When everyone had started to settle down for the evening laziness before full nighttime set in, Nyx flopped across a bed and Belle settled next to him, stroking his hair. Sera braved the bed next to Belle, looking at Nyx curiously. "So what exactly is he?" she asked softly.

"I can hear you, you know," Nyx said, voice muffled from the bed. He didn't sound upset, just factual.

"Sorry Nyx," Sera instantly apologized.

Nyx shrugged and moved his head so Belle could get to his hair more easily. "He's an incubus," Belle said softly. "Not like Thomas is, but the more traditional kind. He feeds off sex and blood, not off energy like Thomas does. He's a half-bishi, though, so I couldn't catch him even if I wanted to."

Sera nodded. "Sounds kinda interesting, at least." She raised her eyebrows slightly.

Belle laughed. "Oh he's lots of fun. You just have to get to know him."

Nyx turned his head so he could look at both of them. "I was born from a human and a demon," he said softly, startling both of them. "I was born an incubus. I started hanging around with vamps, since they're easier than most to get into bed, and one day I asked one to turn me. He obliged."

"So you're demon and vamp?" Sera asked after a moment of silence.

Nyx nodded. "But I still have enough human blood that one of those can't contain me," he said, nodding to a bishiball. "Well, trainer blood, anyway. So I'm immune." He grinned.

Sera blinked before she smiled. "Thanks. For telling me."

The incubus shrugged and went back to getting his attention from Belle, rather like a large cat. Sera smiled to herself as she watched them and went back to her bed.

"Tomorrow I'll start teaching you to use that," Aoshi said, leaning against a wall and nodding to her kodachi. "I'll get you up at 7."

Sera groaned. "Can't I sleep in a little bit?" she asked.

Kenshin's eyes flashed. "Of course you can, Sera-dono," he said. "You don't need to rise too early to train, especially with a blade. If you are tired you won't be concentrating as hard and may get hurt, that you could."

Sera nodded. "Yea, mornings and I don't mix real well. How about we start training a little later, Aoshi?"

The tall bishonen pursed his lips but nodded. "As you wish." It didn't matter to him anyway. But at least it was something to do.

When Sera finally managed to get to bed, she found all of her bishis looking at her, along with Thomas. She blinked. "What?"

"Who gets to share your bed tonight?" Graverobber asked.

"Get out!" Sera threw the nearest thing—the hotel information booklet—at him and he ran away, laughing. Kurama snickered and went to go find a place to curl up, while Kenshin settled down next to her bed meaningfully. Harry and Thomas took up the other side of the floor next to her bed, while Mister curled up next to her. Shaking her head slightly, Sera settled down to sleep, stroking Mister's head. The deep rumbling purr put her to sleep, even without her iPod. Sometimes she absolutely loved cats. Other times they were pains, but sometimes she loved them. So she fell asleep to a gray cat laying on her purring and gentle murmurings in the background.

~*~

As soon as the others were asleep, Nyx and Eclipse sat on the edge of the bed next to Belle, surveying her. They exchanged looks and Eclipse shook his head slightly. "Not yet," he said softly. "Listen to her for now. Not yet. Just wait."

"If we wait too long it will be too late," Nyx said softly, his eyes boring into the demon's fearlessly.

"I know." Eclipse looked down at his trainer sadly. "But it is yet too soon. Give her time. She will see reason if we do not find a cure soon. Leave her be for now."

Nyx nodded after a few moments and settled down to hold his sleeping mate, thinking. Supposedly there was a silver lining to every situation. If only he could find his.


	15. Chapter 15

As usual, I own nothing but for a few characters. Get it? Got it? Good.

Evil roots: Yes I know I screwed up your name. I'm allowed to. And I am writing more so don't complain. And you bitch if you have to get up before noon, you pain.

Miss S. Belle: Hello there dearie. I'm working on it. Don't worry, you two will be showing up more. Things are about to get interesting and you'll be getting lots more hints. Besides, this chapter was not all that serious, and I did give you hints. You already know what's gonna happen, so no complaining allowed for you.

PLO: Don't worry, I'm working on the hints. We just passed the point in the story where lots of things will start coming together. Not all in one chapter, of course, but over a period of time, and I will leave you readers spaces to guess before I spell it all out for you. I'm just having too much fun. And you'll be seeing lots more of Kenshin and Sera being adorable together.

SS13: Excellent! *mad cackle* Yea, you guys are going to learn more over the next few chapters. Because I'm having way too much fun. And Eliora will probably show up again at least once, depending on what I decide to do.

LH: Ha! Yea, that happens to me too. Oh well. We can all go be junkies together.

Shishi: Thank you! I had a lot of fun writing everything, especially the weapons shop. Don't worry, I won't give you so many hints that I spell it out for you, but y'all are gonna get more hints coming up.

~*~

Belle was the first to rise the next morning, and she had to squirm out of Nyx's arms and step over Eclipse's legs in order to get anywhere. She peeked into Sera and Anna's room; they were all sound asleep. A look into Shadow and Kate's room, however, showed that Kate was awake. Belle smiled faintly at the half-fairy, who rose and walked over to her.

"What are you doing up?" Kate asked softly.

"Wanna come on a little walk with me?" Belle asked in a whisper, purposely ignoring the question.

Kate paused before she inclined her head and the two set off down the hallway. "Any particular reason you wanted to walk?" she asked casually.

Belle stretched her arms over her head. "Nyx and Eclipse are dears, and they mean the best, but… It's nice to be away from them, if only for a few minutes. They can be rather overbearing, know what I mean?"

Kate smiled. "I know exactly what you mean." They walked in companionable silence for a few moments. "Ok, now can you spill? The suspense is killing me."

Belle laughed softly. "The boys are so protective and know me so well sometimes I forget what it's like to not have a filter," she said with a smile, though it slowly faded. "I'm sick, Kate. Eclipse and Nyx are worried."

Kate frowned. "How sick?"

"I've seen a doctor," Belle replied. "I'm taking medication, and I'll be alright." That part was a lie and she knew it, but she had to try to convince herself, lest she lose all hope. "But those two are treating me like I'm made of glass, and I don't particularly like it, ya know?"

Kate nodded wisely, walking with her hands crossed under her chest. "Hmm… I don't suppose I could distract them for long?"

"No, probably not," Belle said, grimacing. "But this is good enough for now. I'll kick their butts later."

Kate laughed quietly and shook her head. "So, anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"No, not really." She grinned. "So do you like it here?"

"You mean traveling with you lunatics?" Kate grinned. "Hell yes. This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. Hot guys that haven't known me all my life, other crazy people, free entertainment, free food… what more could I ask for?"

Belle laughed and grinned at Kate. "Not much," she admitted. "I take it you and Shadow are getting along."

"Oh yea," Kate said. "We both love Eric, which is the only minor problem. But oh well." She grinned. "I get him half the time, she gets him the other half."

"Good deal," Belle agreed as they headed downstairs to the breakfast buffet. Not many other people were up, and it was still dark outside. "Umm… What time is it?"

"5:45," Kate replied. "The buffet opens in fifteen minutes, and no one else is going to be up for a while yet."

"Oh. Wow. How did I manage that?" Belle wondered aloud.

Kate chuckled quietly and shook her head. "Who knows? Perhaps you should try to go back to sleep."

Belle shook her head. "Nah, I'm too awake now. Besides, I'm kinda hungry." To emphasize this point, her stomach growled.

Kate laughed. "Alright, let's go see what we can find in the buffet and after that we'll worry about what to do."

As it turned out, the buffet was packed with food and no one there to eat it. One of the staff members said most of it either went to the other workers or just sat there for hours and managed to shove a whole cart full of food at them. It's free for them anyway, he reasoned, and if they didn't eat it then it would get soggy and old. So they went upstairs with muffins, bagels, waffles, eggs, toast, bacon, pancakes, potatoes, just about anything related to breakfast. They took the elevator back up to the room and rolled the cart down the hall, storing the food in Shadow's room, leaving the door open to Belle's. A few of the non-vamps started twitching and mumbling at the smell of food. Belle opened the door to the third room, grinning, and she and Kate started eating. Within half an hour, some of the bishis had zombied over, collected their food, and went back to their respective sleeping places to eat.

Sera groaned as she rolled out of bed near 7, going over to get food. "Why did you have to get food so bloody early…" she grumbled, getting a plate and dumping food on it. She plopped next to Belle and Kate to watch the others.

"Because we were awake and bored and the nice man working here wouldn't let us leave without food for everyone," Kate replied with a grin. "Now tuck in. I heard that you're taking up weapons training."

"Don't remind me," Sera muttered as Aoshi got food and leaned against a wall to eat. "I have lessons with Mr. Tall and Emo over there."

Belle snorted while Aoshi sent Sera a glare. "Looks like he's going to be extra-mean for that."

"He better not be," Sera grumbled. "It's too early to do anything. I would just be waking up for school normally."

Belle laughed and shook her head. "I know, kid. You'll get used to it."

"Nuh uh. I'm gonna keep sleeping in. It's too nice to give up." Sera pouted.

Kate snorted and shook her head. "Well no sleeping in too late. Just right is good."

"The Hell are you all doing up so early?" Nyx groaned from Belle's bed.

"Couldn't sleep," Belle said with a grin. "So we're eating and then we're going to go watch Aoshi kill Sera."

"Hey!" Sera pouted. "Kenshin! Belle's being mean!"

Kenshin walked over, somehow looking exactly as he always did and fully awake. "Good morning, Sera-dono, Belle-dono, Kate-dono." He examined the food for a moment before he took a plate and sat next to Sera. "How is Belle being mean?"

"She's making fun of me," Sera said, turning her pout on Kenshin. He seemed the most likely to help her out.

"How so?" Kenshin tried not to smile as Sera pouted at him. She looked like a puppy when she did that.

"She's saying that Aoshi's going to beat me up when he's training me."

Kenshin's eyes narrowed infinitesimally. "He won't," he promised grimly. "No need to worry about that."

Aoshi walked over to them with a smirk, purposely looming over Sera and looking scary. "You have an hour before we start training," he said before he turned and disappeared into the bathroom.

Sera squeaked. "Couldn't I have someone less scary train me?"

Kenshin had to laugh at that. "He's trying to be scary, that he is. Normally he is not so bad."

"Oh that helps a lot," Sera muttered. "Oh well. If I'm going to die I might as well die on a full stomach."

The other three laughed as she finished her breakfast and went to go change into real clothes.

By 7:45, everyone awake had decided to go to the gym, either to watch or to go train themselves. Anna had flopped back into bed, claiming it was too early to do anything (but only after scarfing down some food), and none of the vamps had gotten up except Nyx. The whole group of them trooped over to the gym at the ungodly early hour of the morning of 8.

Belle convinced the receptionist to open the gym early through the sheer number of people with her, and they were the only ones in the training room. Everyone separated off into groups.

The first group followed Sera and Aoshi into the back of the room, where they all sat down crowded against the wall to watch. Sera and Aoshi started with stretching and slowly moved on to basic exercises. Kenshin stood a little ways off to the side, watching to make sure Aoshi didn't do anything stupid. Belle, Kate, and Shadow were in the front of the group sitting on the floor, all of them watching and chatting.

Eclipse took Graverobber and Kurama to go see if there was any remote possibility of Graverobber ever being any good in a fight.

The rest of the bishis moved off towards the center of the room to spar and test each other. Harry and Thomas ended up facing against each other, both of them grinning. Sharp smacks and thuds filled the room as the sparring continued, though none of them were seriously trying. After all, if they did that, they might actually hurt each other.

After a quick assessment from Aoshi to see if they had to work on building up muscles before anything else (luckily working at stables back home meant she was fairly strong), Sera actually got the kodachi, since Aoshi didn't have anything else to practice with. Showing a startling amount of patience that no one knew he possessed, Aoshi showed Sera how to defend herself, starting off with the very basics.

Everyone stayed at the gym training room until nearly noon, when the receptionist came in and announced that the gym leader was there and was available for fights. Belle immediately hopped up, calling to Eclipse that she wanted to go win another gym fight. Shadow got up and followed her, grinning. Extra cash never hurt.

Sera sighed as she got a break and wiped her brow, putting her kodachi away. Aoshi gave her a very brief smile before he walked away. Sera blinked and wondered if she'd imagined it.

"Did you want to take on the gym leader, Sera-dono?" Kenshin asked softly, walking over to her.

Sera shrugged, looking over at where Harry, Kurama, and Graverobber were all walking over towards her. "Do you think we're ready?"

"I know I am," Kenshin said with a small smile. "Kurama and Harry seem to be, that they do."

Sera smiled. "Well, we can go try." She looked at the other three. "Want to try fighting a gym leader?"

"Sure." Harry grinned. "I was getting tired of kicking Thomas's ass."

Kurama chuckled quietly. "I'm ready if you want us to," he said softly. "But I don't think Graverobber is."

Sera snorted. "Sorry, Graverobber, but about the only think you can do at this point is throw a punch if they're holding still and maybe get close enough to shoot someone up with Zydrate."

Graverobber grinned. "I'm not opposed to the second option."

Sera rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go see how Belle and Shadow do first. The poor trainer might need a break after them."

They walked over into the other room and paused, moving back against the walls with Shadow and her group.

Belle stood off to one side, along with the other trainer. Nyx stood behind Belle, and they were both watching Eclipse face off against a Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed and he moved forward, testing Eclipse's defenses. The black-haired demon never moved, watching the dog demon.

There was a blur of motion from both demons, too fast for anyone to catch, and when both demons stopped Sesshomaru was kneeling on the ground, his hand covering his stomach and blood dripping slowly from a cut on his temple. Eclipse stood closer to Belle, on the other side of the room.

Sesshomaru's lips twisted like he'd just bitten into a not-yet ripe lemon. "I give." He seemed to use a lot of effort to say those two words, and once he did he stood rather gingerly and walked over to his trainer. Eclipse smirked and walked over to Belle, scooping up Raenef from out of her arms.

The gym leader blinked before she nodded to Sesshomaru and turned to speak to a younger demon. The demon girl grinned and went into the middle.

"I, Kurai, give my consent to fight for my trainer," she said, grinning.

Belle didn't even have a chance to turn before Lucifer strode out in front of her, smirking like he was king of the universe. "I agree to fight for dearest trainer mine." He grinned and drew his sword, twirling it easily with one hand, the ruby in the pommel glinting.

Kurai's eyes widened and she turned to stare accusingly at her trainer. "You never said I'd have to fight _him!_"

The trainer merely grinned, putting her hands on her hips. "It'll be good practice. At least it's not a Setsuna or an Alexiel."

Kurai shivered and turned slowly to face Lucifer, looking pale. Lucifer grinned and stretched his wings out slowly to their full length before folding them against his back again. Kurai trembled. Lucifer was standing in front of Belle one moment and the next he had his sword pressed lightly against the pulse point under Kurai's chin. Kurai squeaked and scrambled backwards to hide behind her trainer.

The trainer sighed. "I think that's another victory for you," she said, rolling her eyes. "Demons. Honestly."

Belle laughed and walked over to her. "That was a good pair of fights, though," she said with a smile. "Maybe next time I'll keep Lucifer back and you can set someone else on him."

The trainer laughed. "Sure, we'll see," she agreed. "Here's your reward." She handed over a little wad of bills, which Belle took and put in a pocket. "Anyone else want to have a go?"

Sera glanced over at Shadow. The older trainer grinned and shooed her forward. "Me?"

The trainer turned to look at her. "I didn't see you there before," she said, blinking. "I'm Deelana."

"Sera." They shook hands and then moved across the floor. "So how does this work?"

"You ever fought a gym leader before?"

"Never." Sera grinned sheepishly.

"Alright. We'll make this easier and say best two out of three. I would have done the third match with her but she'd already won, so." Deelana shrugged. "That sound good to you?"

"Sure," Sera said, sounding a little uncertain. "Um. Do you go first or should I?"

Deelana laughed. "I'll give you a little advantage and I'll call mine first, since this is your first fight," she said with a grin. "Touya?"

A blue-haired ice demon stepped forward, his green eyes narrowing slightly. "I consent to fight for Deelana."

"Ok. Um." Sera glanced at her three battle-worthy bishonen. "Harry, you wanna take him?"

Harry grinned and cracked his knuckles. "No problem." Harry stood almost a foot taller than Touya. He grinned and kept his staff with him, adjusting his leather duster slightly.

"A staff?" Touya scoffed. "What kind of weapon is that?"

"A good one," Harry retorted, swinging the staff at Touya, who yelped and jumped back, away from the maniacal wizard. The ice demon managed to condense the water in the air into a sword for himself, narrowing his eyes at Harry.

Harry paused. "You never told me he could do that," he said, glaring at Sera. She shrugged helplessly. He turned his attention back to Touya just as the demon formed a ring of ice around them. "Hey!"

Touya smirked and lunged at him. Harry dodged to the side quickly, using his staff to counter the blows from the ice-blade. He slipped on a patch of ice and swore softly, knocking the ice-blade to the side and scooting himself back a little ways away from Touya.

"_Fuego!_" he growled, pointing his staff at Touya. Touya yelped as a lance of fire shot at him, and he dove out of the way. The ice melted wherever the fire touched, leaving water spreading across the floor. Harry pressed his advantage and moved forward swiftly, tackling Touya when the demon tried to get up and putting his staff against his throat. "I win."

Touya glared at him but nodded. The ice slowly vanished, and Harry got off Touya, offering him a hand up. The demon blinked but took it. The two nodded to each other and returned to their trainers.

"Sera wins," Shadow announced, grinning.

"Good job, Harry!" Sera said with a big grin. Harry merely grinned.

Deelana nodded to Touya and checked him briefly to make sure he wasn't injured before she tapped another ball on her belt. "Jin, you up for a fight?"

"Whoowee, this aughta be fun!" The wind demon grinned, floating a few feet in the air. His long, pointed ears twitched. Sera resisted the urge to squee and tackle him out of the air.

"I'll fight for Sera," Kurama said, stepping forward.

"Go ahead." Shadow grinned and rested back against the wall again, watching.

Jin moved forward, examining Kurama. Kurama did the same, grinning. A rose appeared in his hand and Jin backtracked, sending wind to surround Kurama. A leaf flew out of the wind and flew right past Jin, embedding itself in the wall next to him. More leaves followed, all of them aimed high so the only one that had to duck once was Harry.

The wind died down to show Kurama still there, though looking very wind-blown. He shook his head to get his hair somewhat arranged and threw more razor-sharp leaves at Jin. Jin dodged and reacted, flinging more wind energy at Kurama. The redhead hit the wall and struggled, but couldn't find a way out. Jin increased the pressure and Kurama was forced to be still. He bowed his head in acquiescence.

"Deelana wins this round," Shadow announced. Jin let Kurama slide to the floor, and both returned to their trainers.

"You alright, Kurama?" Sera asked softly.

Kurama nodded with a small smile. "Perhaps that was not the smartest fight to have taken," he said softly. "But I wanted to." He exchanged a look with Kenshin, who smiled and nodded, stepping forward.

"Saving the best for last?" Sera guessed softly. Kurama nodded and she grinned.

"I consent to fight for Sera-dono, that I do." Kenshin stood calmly, waiting.

Deelana looked at him for a moment before she nodded and tapped another ball.

An Inuyasha appeared, took one look around, and growled something under his breath that made Deelana glare at his back. "Why are you putting me up against a human?"

"It'll be a good test for you," Deelana said with and almost-evil grin. "After all, you can't just go around fighting other demons all the time. You need to practice on others too."

Inuyasha growled at her before he turned back to Kenshin. "I'll fight for her."

"Begin."

Kenshin watched Inuyasha for a moment before he drew his reverse-blade sword, holding it lightly and easily. Inuyasha responded in kind, drawing the Tetsusaiga. The two circled each other for a few moments before Kenshin darted forward. Inuyasha brought the Tetsusaiga to block and swiped at him, missing by an inch. The two continued to fight, moving up to close quarters before darting away again in quick bursts too fast for Sera to follow. Harry was standing there with his mouth open like a fool.

Both stopped on opposite ends of the room. Inuyasha growled and rushed forward. Kenshin darted forward, knocked Tetsusaiga out of Inuyasha's hands, and then pointed the tip of his sword at the side of Inuyasha's neck. The half-demon froze.

"Sera wins again!" Shadow called. Kenshin lowered his sword and backed off a few steps, nodding to Inuyasha. The half-demon snorted and turned, stalking back to Deelana after getting his sword.

"Good job," Deelana said, walking over to Sera. "For a first gym fight, that was excellent."

Sera smiled. "Thank you."

"Here." Deelana held out another wad of cash, this one slightly larger than Belle's. "Since it's your first try."

Sera found herself grinning. "Thanks. Maybe we'll come back and fight you again sometime."

"Sure thing," Deelana said with a smile that seemed almost forced. "Later."

Sera grinned at her and left, the other two trainers following her. Once they were in the lobby, Belle hugged Sera.

"That was great, kid!" she said with a broad grin. "Really great. If you keep this up and catch a few more bishis, we'll be able to enter the tournament together!"

Sera laughed. "I don't know about that, but I'll sure try." She grinned up at her sister.

Shadow hugged her as well, grinning. "That was a ton of fun to watch," she said. "Maybe we should have our guys start sparring and getting in shape."

"Speaking of," Aoshi said from behind Sera, making the youngest trainer yelp and jump, "We have more work to do. Come on."

Sera groaned. "Aw, come on! I just finished a boss fight!"

"You didn't have to do much," Aoshi said, raising his eyebrows with amused smirk. "Now come along. If we're to make any progress within a month, you need to train."

Sera hung her head and trudged after him, Kenshin faithfully following her. Shadow and Belle both laughed.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a few characters.

PLO: Belle chose Kate because she doesn't know Kate as well so Kate wouldn't freak out. And Inuyasha can't use Wind Scar on a human unless his trainer is being threatened, which is why he didn't use it. Besides, Kenshin's a fast, tricky devil. ;) Kenshin and Sera are probably about the cutest couple I've ever written about. It's fun!

SS13: Well here's another chapter for you with all the fun and bits and hints and things. Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter just as much.

~*~

By the time Sera trudged back to the hotel, it was close to 8 at night. She had given her backpack to Kenshin and the kodachi hung from her belt, where Aoshi had demanded she wear it "for training purposes". She suspected he was just being sadistic.

Sera collapsed on her bed, groaning softly. The other three trainers looked up and Nyx walked over, starting to poke Sera. She swatted at him, her arm flopping onto the bed. Poke. Swat. Poke. Swat. Poke. Swat.

Nyx cackled quietly and poked her side, making Sera yelp, jump, and fall off the bed in a heap. Kenshin rolled his eyes and helped Sera to her feet. Nyx moved around and poked her back.

Sera grabbed her kodachi, sheath and all, from her belt, and whacked Nyx's arm. He yelped and glared, rubbing the spot. The other three trainers laughed.

"Come here, love," Belle said with a smile. Nyx skulked back over to her and pouted, holding out his arm. Belle kissed the spot Sera had just hit and Nyx grinned before he moved behind Belle and wrapped his arms around her. He stuck his tongue out at Sera from behind Belle's back.

"So how was training?" Anna asked with a grin.

"Ask the slave driver," Sera groaned as she collapsed on her bed again. "I feel like I just tried to pick up a truck."

"I could have been worse," Aoshi said calmly as he entered the room. "But Anna told me to be nice, so I am."

"This is _nice?!"_ Sera yelped.

"It's a relative term." Aoshi smirked rather evilly.

"I like him," Nyx said to no one in particular.

Sera groaned and dropped her head into the pillow again, giving Aoshi the single-finger salute. The others snickered.

"So who wants dinner?" Belle asked.

"Me!" Sera sat up almost immediately. Aoshi snorted and coughed, hiding a laugh. Kenshin couldn't help but grin.

"What are you offering?" Nyx asked with a grin as one of his hands rested on Belle's stomach. Belle swatted his arm lightly.

"I'll pay for half of it," the older sister said as she stood. "Come on, people. There's food to be enjoyed and a nightlife to be had."

The other three stopped and stared. "You are going to a _club_?"

"Ew, no, ew, no!" Sera hid her face in her hands. "No no no no no no!!!"

"Well I am even if you guys aren't," Belle said. "You can come if you want."

Shadow and Anna exchanged looks, grinned identical evil grins, and nodded. "Count us in."

Sera groaned. "I don't know you people any more," she muttered as she headed for the door. The other three trainers laughed and followed her.

"I'll pay for the other half of dinner," Anna said with a grin.

"What've you been doing?" Belle asked, turning slightly to look at Anna.

"Making money without having to do anything." Anna looked very smug.

"How?!" Shadow turned on her in outrage. "And why was I not informed?!"

"I'll give you some since I've been borrowing your Eric from time to time," Anna said. "But you wouldn't believe how few people actually have an Eric who just want to glomp one. I charge a very small fee per glomp, and you get to pick which bishi you want to glomp. I've been offering up all of mine, except Aoshi, and Thomas volunteered since he said it would help him with feeding."

Belle stared at Anna for a moment before she started laughing. It choked off in a few coughs, but she was still grinning. "Oh, Anna, you are a genius. One of these days you are going to take over the world without lifting a finger."

Anna beamed. "Why thank you." She grinned evilly and pounced on Belle's back. "Carry me!"

Belle stumbled but shook her head when Nyx looked about to removed Anna. She carried the smaller girl with a smile, chuckling to herself. "Alright, where are we going?"

"There." Sera pointed to the nearest restaurant, which happened to be a nice sit-down place. Well, fairly nice, anyway. The group headed in there and got a whole back room to themselves between the trainers, the half-bishis, and the bishis themselves. Sera managed to get a seat a little ways away from the others, though she didn't discourage Harry from sitting with Thomas or Graverobber from going to the other side of the room.

"Is something wrong, Sera-dono?" Kenshin asked softly as he sat next to her.

"It's just strange," she said softly. "I mean, I know that Belle is more out-going than I am, but imaging her going to a club… It's just very, very strange. Nothing she would have even thought about back in our old home."

Kurama nodded. "People change once they get here. There are not as many rules, and you can be virtually whatever you had ever wanted to be. There is still crime but not nearly as much. Things are just different here, and, supposedly, much better."

"Yea, that is true. I mean, I wouldn't change this for the world. This is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. But it's still…" Sera shrugged, at a loss for words.

"Weird?" Kenshin and Kurama exchanged looks when their trainer nodded rather glumly.

Their food arrived; they'd gotten a family dinner and everyone got to go get their own portion of food from a variety of different plates. The three at the corner table waited for the initial frenzy to die down before going over to get food.

"Are you coming with us later, Sera?" Anna asked with a grin. "I think I've got something that you might be able to wear."

"No," Sera said with a little polite smile. "I'll stay at the hotel and rest and babysit whoever doesn't want to go. Sound good?"

Belle frowned slightly but nodded. "Sure thing. If you want something to help with muscle pain, I might have something."

"Nah, it's good," Sera said, grinning. "I'm just being a wuss and complaining because I can. Don't worry about it."

"We have to go back to the hotel first anyway, so I'll show you where my stuff is, if you need it," Belle insisted. When Sera nodded, she beamed and let Sera escape back to her corner before she went back to planning with Shadow and Anna.

Dinner passed quickly, and everyone went back to the hotel before splitting up into two groups: those going clubbing and those staying home. Sera was in charge of all the bishis staying at the hotel (aka 'home') while the rest got ready and went out.

Sera sighed softly and went into the middle room, keeping both doors open, and turned on the TV. "Anyone have a movie preference?"

The entire group of people staying immediately crowded into the room and started talking to her all at once. This was going to be a long night…

~*~

Meanwhile, the other three trainers and their bishis had found the club. It was an alcohol-free, fairly safe place, basically just for people who liked music and dancing. They served sodas and alcohol-free drinks at the bar in the back, and there were a few staircases leading to balconies with chairs and tables and couches around them for people to rest. The place wasn't packed, but it certainly wasn't empty.

Belle immediately skipped into the crowd, grinning, and Nyx growled and followed her like a protective guard dog. Which he probably was for the night. The others broke off, going their own ways in pairs, small groups, or sometimes singly. It wasn't hard to find Thomas, at least; he had people looking at him the whole time.

~*~

Flashing red, blue, yellow lights illuminated bodies of all shapes and colors, walls hardly decorated but for a few posters. A few black lights strategically placed caused flashes of white cloth to glow purple in the quasi-darkness. Blue- and red-tinted overhead lights shone down on everything, ensuring that no one was completely blind. And over everything, on the highest platform, two figures watched everything.

"She has recovered well," the demon said, his eyes flashing. "Though I do not see the younger one here. Our trainer shall be pleased."

The second figure snorted, crazy blonde hair standing out all over the place and dyed temporarily blue and red. It looked strange on him. "Oh yea, so we get to go take her again. What about the kid?"

"She need not be involved this time," the demon replied. "Though she was exquisite to taunt…" A smirk stretched his lips and purple robes shifted around him.

"I suppose this means no torturing, huh?" The blonde looked a little disappointed.

"No, not this time, my psychotic friend. Have you drugged the drinks as I asked?"

"Yup." The blonde grinned, and white teeth briefly glowed purple. "Five drinks, five random people. All our newest test batch for dearest trainer."

"Good." The demon nodded his approval. "It is time we be going, before anyone notices us. We have work to do yet before our trainer will be ready for a second taking."

The blonde grinned. "Can't I go play for a little while longer?"

"No," the demon said with all the patience of someone explaining to a particularly stubborn four-year-old why he could not have ice cream before dinner. "You may not. We have to report back before finding five more test subjects that live in the area. The boy will not be a perfect test subject."

The blonde sighed. "Fine. Let's go." He brightened. "_Then_ I'll come back here and have some fun." He laughed rather evilly as the demon teleported them both out.

~*~

Nyx glanced up at the platforms but didn't see anything. Eyes narrowed, he stayed closer to Belle than he normally would (since he did believe in giving her some space when she was trying to have fun) and kept hold of her hand. Hey, if it kept other boys from ogling her while they were walking around, all the better for it. Especially Thomas. The incubus was getting too close to his territory for comfort…

Belle stopped at the bar nearly half an hour later and got water, her face flushed but bright with laughter and the general vibe of the room. She grinned at Nyx and he smiled faintly back at her, settling next to her. "You alright?" She practically had to shout over the music.

"I'm fine," Nyx replied, speaking in her ear so he didn't have to speak as loud. "Are you sure you feel up to this, love?"

"I'm sure. It's good for me to have fun once in a while. Otherwise I'll become a grouch, like Eclipse." She grinned and poked his nose. "You're it!" She darted off through the crowd, giggling.

Rolling his eyes, Nyx set after her, allowing her to have her fun and run away but keeping her within his sight at all times. He would not let anything happen to her again.

~*~

Kate, Shadow, and Anna were in a corner, discreetly handing out a few flyers to people, advertising their wares: glomp a bishi of your choice from far-away lands without ever having to leave town! Anna and Shadow had both offered up all their bishis (except Aoshi, who was exempt because he was training Sera), Murphy (because the cop didn't believe in glomping and did believe in guns), and Vlad (because he was too old and dignified to be glomped for such a small sum. He was to be glomped for a larger sum of money or not at all). Overall, they had received good reactions and a few people had said they'd go visit sometime and/or tell their friends. Oh the joys of being able to make money without doing much…

~*~

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Sera was falling asleep and it was still only ten. Kenshin quietly picked up his trainer and set her on her bed in the other room, tucking her in before he told the others to be quiet. Yoko opened his mouth to protest, but one golden-eyed glare from Kenshin made him fall silent. Duo turned the volume down and Harry tactfully retreated when the TV flickered a few times.

~*~

The others started filtering in starting near midnight. Shadow and Kate came back first with a few of Shadow's bishis, and the rest meandered in after them in twos and threes. Eclipse looked up from where Raenef was cuddled in his arms when Belle and Nyx hadn't shown up and everyone else was back.

"Where's Belle?" he asked Thomas, who was closest.

"I don't know," he said softly, his eyes bright. "She was with Nyx all night. I saw her a few times, but I never heard anything strange."

Eclipse growled to himself and set Raenef gently on one of the two beds. "Anything happens to the chibi, I take it out of your hide tenfold. Clear?"

Thomas nodded and sat down on the floor cross-legged to keep watch. Eclipse eyed him for a moment before he left, going outside quickly. He froze for a moment when he saw Nyx carrying someone in his arms, and nearly freaked out.

"It's alright," Nyx said softly. "She's fine. She's just asleep. She wore herself out."

Eclipse grumbled something about irrationality and foolish teenage girls, but nodded. "Very well. Let's go inside and put her to bed. I have the incubus watching Rae."

Nyx's lips twitched into a grin. "You left _Thomas_ watching _Raenef_? Oh that is great."

Eclipse scowled at him and vanished back inside, muttering under his breath. Nyx followed him. Thomas was still sitting there, but he didn't seem to be paying attention. He snapped to attention real fast once Eclipse gave his ear a sharp flick.

Everyone slowly settled down to sleep after that, though at least one of the bishis was up at all times in an unspoken agreement to watch over the trainers. After all, if they didn't, one of the girls might get hurt. Or worse.

~*~

Aoshi shook Sera awake at 7 the next morning. The only words he got out of his mouth were "You need to train" before Sera threw the nearest thing at him. The nearest thing happened to be a tennis shoe. Aoshi dodged the shoe and it hit the bed behind him, aka the bed with Anna. Anna growled something in her sleep and rolled over, her arm flopping out of the bed. Her arm managed to hit Vlad, who jerked upright with a snarl. The snarl woke Mouse, and the gigantic dog heaved himself to his feet with a small growl rumbling in his chest. The growl roused Harry, who grumbled something about not having a case and it being too early. He rolled over and dislodged Mister, who rose with a disgruntled hiss and jumped onto Sera. Sera yelped and jerked out of bed, landing in a pile of blankets and pillows on Kenshin and Kurama at the same time. Soon the entire room was awake and trying to sort out the mess. Aoshi had conveniently decided it was breakfast time and vanished before anyone could kill him.

Finally, by the time everyone was sorted out, it was nearly 8 and Shadow and Kate had been roused. They decided that everyone needed breakfast to mellow out some and herded everyone downstairs.

Sera stayed behind to get Belle to come with them, and she knocked on the door. No one answered. With a small frown, Sera knocked again.

The door opened a fraction, and Lucifer looked down at Sera. "Yes?"

"We're all going to get breakfast and wanted to know if Belle wants to come," Sera said. "I want to talk to her."

Lucifer's face remained completely blank. "Belle is tired and resting and is to be left alone, orders of Eclipse. I will come get you when she wakes."

Sera frowned at the obvious dismissal and wedged her foot in the door before Lucifer could shut it on her. "Please let me see her. I'm her sister."

Lucifer looked down at her and paused when someone inside spoke. He stepped aside and Nyx filled the gap quickly, opening the door a little more so he could speak to her properly instead of through a crack. "I'm sorry, Sera, but you can't talk to Belle right now. She's asleep and she's running a little fever. I promise that I will let you know the instant she wakes up, alright?"

Sera eyed him for a moment before she nodded. "Alright. I believe you. Even if you are only doing it for Belle's sake, I think you will." She smiled faintly at him. "Thanks, Nyx."

At his nod, she turned and headed off after the others to go eat before going back to training. She nearly groaned at the thought.

~*~

Nyx shut the door softly and turned to find Lucifer giving him a look. "What?"

"That was odd of you. Had it been any of the others, you'd have sent them packing same as I did." Lucifer raised an eyebrow in question.

"The others aren't her sibling," Nyx said softly as he checked on Belle again. "She'd have wanted me to be nice to Sera."

"That is true," Duo piped up from the corner. "She loves Sera. She'd want Sera to be informed enough to not pry but not have to be too worried."

Lucifer nodded slowly before he shrugged. "Ah well. Not my problem any more." He went and sprawled in a chair, watching the others with slightly narrowed golden eyes.

"You notice anything strange last night?" Nyx asked casually as he took Belle's temperature again. Thomas, Duzell, and Lucifer had all gone clubbing the previous night.

"No. I was busy." Thomas grinned lazily from where he was lounging against the wall, watching TV.

"Yes." Duzell shot the incubus a look. "There was a malicious will in the building, but I never saw the person."

"Two, actually," Lucifer said calmly as he stretched out a bit, his eyes on their sleeping trainer. "They were on one of the platforms for a while and then disappeared. They did nothing to harm anyone so far as I could tell."

Nyx nodded. "That was the impression I got too. Do you think…?" The rest of his question went unspoken but hung in the air: _Do you think they got to Belle somehow?_

All the other bishis in the room tensed and Eclipse's eyes flashed dangerously. "If they harmed her in any way, I will gladly rip them to shreds," he said quite calmly. He meant every word too. "Although this time I believe it is simply her illness acting up again?"

"What illness?" Thomas frowned and shifted, looking at the others. He was new and hadn't been clued in yet.

Eclipse heaved a sigh and sat down next to Belle, trying to figure out how best to tell Thomas that their trainer was slowly dying.

~*~

Around noontime, everyone decided to take a break from training and/or watching Sera get her ass handed to her. Shadow and Kate were the main suspects in the latter category, though most of the others had stopped to watch at some point. Anna had come too, saying she might as well let her guys and Murphy train some too, since it was too early for glomping.

Sera flopped to the ground and didn't get up. Deelana peeked in with concern, shook her head, and left.

"Up," Aoshi ordered. "Now."

"Screw you, asshole," Sera growled, giving him the one-fingered salute again. "I am freaking tired, and I've done everything without complaint. Give me a break."

Anna laughed quietly. "Lay off a bit, Aoshi. You can always keep training later. It's not like we're going anywhere for the moment. If Belle's sick and we have business to do, we'll probably be in town for another week at least."

"Great." Sera sighed and sat up. "Another week. I already need a break…"

She was further saved from any more torture by Lucifer entering in an annoyed flutter of wings and narrowed eyes. He stalked over to Sera and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder. She oofed and flopped limply against him. "All of you. Up. Now."

"Why? What happened?" Shadow scrambled to her feet, as did everyone else.

"Belle wants to talk to you all now." Lucifer's eyes seemed to darken, though Sera didn't see. All she could see was his lower back and something a little lower than that. Not that was protesting in this particular case.

"Why?" Kate moved forward. "What happened? What's going on?"

Lucifer looked grim as he replied. "She's worse than we thought. She requested to speak to all of you about it immediately. It would be best to not keep her waiting." He turned and strode off with Sera in tow, leading the way back to the hotel. Sera managed to look at the others, who looked everything from confused to angry to upset. Only Kate didn't look at all confused. She just looked very sad and very grim. Their eyes met for a brief moment and Sera found herself tearing up for no reason but for the bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I own nada but for a few characters.

LH: Lmao! I think you're right. Only 16 chapters. Well maybe you'll get something else for this chapter. It's a long one.

MSB: Yea, you guys get the whole explanations in a couple chapters, so hang on to your seats. It's all about to get REAL fun...

SS13: Oh yay! Well this is going to be very interesting. I look forward to your friend's fic as well. It sounds great. ^_^

PLO: Oh yea. Just wait. Things get lots more interesting. And everything (well, most everything) shall be explained in a few chapters.

~*~

Belle was sitting up in bed, the blankets pulled up around her. Nyx sat behind her, his arms wrapped around her. The others filed into the room and Lucifer set Sera on the other bed.

"What's wrong?" Shadow asked, moving forward.

"I see that Lucifer did exactly what I told him not to and freaked you all out." Belle grimaced. "Sorry for that. I did want to talk to you all, but not with you all freaked out. There's nothing seriously wrong, so don't worry that much." Belle looked around at all of them and sighed softly. "I'm sick. I seem to have caught the flu or a cold or something. And, as we all know, there is no cure for a cold so I just have to suffer it out. I hope you don't mind staying in town for an extra couple days."

Everyone visibly relaxed, and Shadow and Anna laughed.

"No, that's fine," Anna said with a grin. "Actually, we were planning on staying here for a little while longer, anyway."

"There is still business to be had here," Shadow said, mock-grave as she grinned.

Belle laughed quietly. "Good. I didn't think any of you would mind." She turned her gaze to Sera. "That alright with you?"

Sera nodded. "Uh huh. As long as Aoshi doesn't work me into the ground, I'm fine with it." She grinned.

The others all laughed and the mood lightened considerably. Belle watched the others chat and discuss their plans for money making with a small smile, leaning back against Nyx. She was still hoping that someone would be able to find a cure for her, or at least another drug to give her more time, but hope was dwindling fast. A soft sigh made Nyx's arms tighten around her, and a few of hers glanced at her worriedly. They all tried to hide it, but she could see it. They were all worried about her, worried about what would happen, worried about 'what if's. Even if there was no cure, she would make very certain that they would not be brought down by her mistake.

Sera found herself leaning back against Kenshin as she watched the others, her eyes half-closed. She was tired, and she didn't know why. She shrugged it off and got up, heading downstairs. Kenshin followed her silently, keeping an eye on her. Kurama followed him, deciding that two pairs of eyes were better than one.

Sitting down at a table in the small restaurant attached to the hotel, Sera glanced at Kenshin and Kurama. "Are you two getting paranoid or something?"

"One can never be too safe," Kurama said, glancing around before settling in a chair next to her.

"There have been too many strange things, that there have," Kenshin agreed, sitting on her other side. His eyes continually wandered the room, looking for anyone suspicious. The only one that looked odd was a Marik, sitting in a corner of the room with a cup of coffee, looking grumpy. His normally spiky blonde hair was even messier than ever, like he'd been out all night.

Sera shrugged, not about to argue with them. "Well, whatever makes you guys happy."

"You being safe and not getting into trouble would make us happy," Kurama replied seriously. He stole a piece of fruit and munched on it. "Whoever went after Belle might go after you too. I don't want to know what would happen if he or she did."

Sera shivered involuntarily. "Yea, I see your point," she muttered. "Okay, I won't protest." She finished the rest of her fruit salad, sharing with the other two, before she got up and stretched. "Alright, let's go see what other tortures Aoshi has in mind for me."

~*~

Richi shivered as he felt Megumi and Yukina moving farther away from him. He knew they weren't three miles away, but he could feel the link between them stretching and pulling at his mind, making him very uncomfortable. He looked around the bleak white cell he sat in and curled up, waiting for it all to go away. _He_ had said it would end soon. _He_ had said Richi would be helping with an amazing scientific discovery. But all Richi wanted was his bishis to come back and for the pain to stop.

~*~

The demon watched the boy through the observation camera, ignoring the brunette typing away at a computer. He was always there anyway.

"Minias, you're wanted." Marik grinned at him from the doorway.

Minias rolled his eyes, the orange glow flickering off Marik's face, muttering something under his breath, and followed Marik out of the room. "What now?"

"We have our next mission. Well, you do anyway, and I'm tagging along for the fun of it." Marik grinned, and Minias just remembered why he'd been paired with the psychotic blonde. Blondie would have driven anyone else nuts by now.

~*~

In the computer room, a Seto Kaiba watched as the boy curled up on the floor, apparently in pain. He pressed an intercom button to another room. "There. He looks ready."

"Very good," a gentle male voice said. "Call Vegeta and tell him to stop pushing. Pegasus and I will continue testing. Minias should be bringing in another soon."

"Understood." Seto turned off the intercom link and sighed to himself. Why did he always get stuck with communications…?

~*~

That night, Sera picked up chicken noodle soup for Belle on the way up to the hotel room, not quite as exhausted as she had been the night before. Kenshin and Kurama were still following her everywhere, but she didn't really mind. Not that much, anyway.

"Will you two quit watching me like I'm about to go run off cackling?" Sera snapped, exasperated. "I'm not going anywhere!"

"Sorry, Sera," Kurama said. "But we can't let anything happen to you."

Sera growled in annoyance and stomped up the stairs, since the elevator was busy, and went into Belle's room. "I brought soup," she said, walking over to the bed.

Belle laughed quietly. "Not quite your homemade stuff, I'm sure," she said with a smile.

Sera blushed and rubbed the back of her neck, holding out the container. "Probably not. But it's still soup."

Belle smiled at her. "Thanks. Wanna join me for dinner?"

"Sure." Sera pulled over a chair and sat down, putting her feet up on Belle's bed, making the older laugh. Eclipse poured the soup into two bowls and the girls both ate, slurping as they did. Eclipse rolled his eyes and Nyx snorted.

"So what's wrong?" Belle asked softly as Eclipse took away their empty bowls.

"What do you mean?" Sera looked away slightly, over to where Kenshin and Kurama were waiting for her.

Belle lowered her voice to a whisper. The TV was on, so Sera was barely able to hear her. "You looked upset when you came in. Why?"

"Just upset at Kurama and Kenshin. They're following me around and they won't let me out of their sight for any length of time," Sera said softly. "I'm pretty safe here, but they insist on following me all over."

Belle studied her for a few moments before she smiled faintly. "Don't get too upset at them," she said softly. "You never know when you might want—or need—someone to take care of you, and they're your best bets half the time. So don't get so angry at them for wanting to keep you safe."

Sera eyed her sister with a small frown. "You sound like you're speaking from experience. What happened?"

Belle merely smiled and settled back against the pillows, her eyes traveling over all of her bishis. "Just be glad that you have them."

Sera sighed softly but stayed there for a few minutes in silence, watching Belle. Something had definitely happened, but she didn't know what. Belle never would have said that if she didn't have personal experience in the area, which led Sera to think that Belle must have gotten in trouble. She didn't know how, exactly, though. Which frustrated her.

After several moments, Sera gave up on trying to get any more out of her sister. "So are Kate, Shadow, and Anna still doing 'business'?" She grinned as she used the air quotes.

"Yup," Belle said. "They set up somewhere a little ways away. I think they were going to try to rope some of the others into service as well. Most of mine refused. You should have seen it when they asked Lucifer. Now _that_ was hilarious."

Lucifer ruffled his wings from where he stood off to the side. "I am not some average man to be glomped for a fee," he said, very indignantly. "I am Lucifer, not some petty mortal."

"Shall I?" Sera grinned as she stood. Belle waved her hand in acceptance, grinning, and Sera moved around the bed while Lucifer ranted. "Hey, Lu!"

"What?" Lucifer turned around at the nickname and yelped as Sera jumped up and glomped him, her arms hooked securely around his neck. He stumbled back but managed not to fall, instead standing there with Sera hanging off him. "What are you doing?!"

"Glomping you," Sera said. She grinned up at him. "Hi."

Lucifer sputtered indignantly. "Get off!"

"No. I'm comfy." Sera grinned and reached out with one hand to start petting one of his wings.

"No! Get off!" Lucifer tried to back away, only to drag her with him. "Don't _pet_ me, you… you…" He trailed off as she continued stroking his wing with the tips of her fingers, shuddering slightly. "Don't pet me… Don't… Don't stop…" he mumbled, standing there with a trainer hanging off him and petting his wing.

Belle laughed softly as she watched her little sister bring the Fallen from 'high and mighty, better-than-thou' to 'happy little mass of flesh'. The only one who could do it faster was Belle herself.

Sera released Lucifer, kissed his cheek and grinned at him, and darted off to hide behind Kenshin before the Fallen could do anything. Grumbling, Lucifer went over to the chair she'd vacated, resettling his wings against his back.

"Go gather the others in," Belle called to Sera. "It's almost nine."

"Okay." Sera trudged downstairs and outside again, this time not minding her bodyguards quite so much. She paused outside the hotel. "Um. Any idea where they might be?"

Kenshin chuckled quietly as he moved up beside his trainer, nodding off to the side. "Over there. There's a rather large group of girls over there, that there is."

"Oh." Sera stood there for a moment, feeling rather stupid, before she walked over to the group of girls. She saw one of them glomp an Eric, trying to tackle him apparently, but she was disappointed; Eric stayed upright. Chuckling, Sera walked over to Shadow. "Belle said it's time to come in for the night, it's almost nine."

Shadow pouted. "Oh, alright. We'll come in after a few more people." She grinned at Sera and pulled her back away from the crowd and behind the table. "We are making a mint here, Sera! You should join in!"

Sera grinned. "Maybe I'll offer up Kurama and Harry. Kenshin stays with me, and I dunno if anyone will want to glomp Graverobber. Besides, I'm still in boot camp, remember?"

"Oh yea." Shadow grinned after a moment. "Bring Aoshi along and throw him in with the others!" She nodded to the side and Sera stared.

All the bishis that were up for glomping were set in a make-shift 'cage' which was ready some fencing with a top thrown over it. Luckily it was roomy, and the bishis looked happy enough.

"Ok gals, closing time!" Shadow yelled over the throng. Groans came from the crowd, along with muted curses. "But don't worry! We'll be back tomorrow and the rest of the week, with possible additions!" The girls cheered at that and slowly dissipated, talking amongst themselves and to some of their own bishis that came out from hiding. Shadow opened the 'cage' and the bishis came out, most of them grinning. Thomas looked especially pleased with himself.

"You guys are nuts," Sera said, rather awed. "But in a good way. How do you keep track of all this?"

"The girl asks for a bishi and when she pays is, we put the money in different jars," Anna said, nodding to the jars under the small folding table they'd set up. "One jar for each of us with a bishi in there. At the end of the day, we each get our earnings from the jar." Anna picked up her own jar and grinned. "See? Easy!"

Sera was silent for a moment as she absorbed all of this. "Hey Kenshin, how upset do you think Kurama and Harry would be if I volunteered them for this?"

~*~

Belle blinked as Anna deposited a jar in her lap. "What's this?"

"Your earnings for today," Anna said with a grin. "Thomas had too much fun."

"I can see that," Belle said dryly, looking at the jar. "Alright. Thanks Anna."

"No problem," Anna replied with a grin. "How do you feel?"

Belle shrugged. "About like anyone with a cold. Pretty miserable."

Anna nodded sympathetically. "Well, think about it this way: at least you have no lack of walking ice packs." She grinned.

Belle had to laugh at that one. "Yea, except I don't think Nyx would let any of the others sleep in the same bed as me without getting pissy."

Nyx grumbled, sitting next to Belle and crossing his arms over his chest. "Not my fault I'm possessive."

"And you get jealous easily. And you're over-protective. And you're practically paranoid." Belle grinned.

Nyx glared at her weakly. "That's besides the point."

Belle laughed quietly, wincing when it turned into wet coughs. Anna took a step closer, frowning, and Belle waved her back. "Don't get too close or you might get sick too," she said, grimacing. "I'm alright. Don't worry about me. You'll get wrinkles." She grinned at Anna and settled back against the pillows. "Although if you lot wanted to cram in here to watch a movie or something, I'm not opposed to that."

Anna grinned and ran back into the room she shared with Sera, where they others had been eating and counting their earnings, and yelled something about movies and popcorn and candy. There were mingled groans and cheers. Belle chuckled and closed her eyes briefly.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself?" Nyx asked softly from next to her.

"Doing what?" Belle murmured, keeping her eyes shut.

"Getting closer to them. Making it seem like nothing's wrong." Nyx frowned. "You're spending all your energy on them instead of yourself."

Belle shrugged and opened her eyes. "I'm a naturally selfless person, Nyx. I want to spend time with them while I can. I want them to be happy and have good memories of me. I don't want to spend all my time in a hospital before I die." Her eyes darkened and she looked away. "Besides, I still have time left. We could still find a cure."

"I know a perfectly good cure," Nyx murmured, trailing two fingers down her neck.

"No, Nyx. I told you, no. I don't want that to be the easy way out. That is my last resort only." Belle gave him a steady look.

"We're at last resorts!" Nyx hissed in a whisper as the others started moving. "Just let me—"

"No. We'll discuss this later." Belle kissed his cheek to show him she wasn't mad at him and snuggled into his arms for the movie. Nyx sighed but held her, since it was all she'd let him do. For now.

Everyone was soon settled down to watch a movie, or two or five. First on the list was _The Three Musketeers_ since the trainers all loved it and it was a great movie. Many laughs were had, and slowly everyone relaxed and sat back, enjoying themselves for the rest of the night.

~*~

Minias sighed and ran a hand through his hair before replacing his hat and looking over at his companion. "See anything interesting?"

The tall silver-haired man scoffed. "They're all sitting in the one room watching a movie," he said, his deep voice scornful. "There are a few sitting in there keeping watch, but hardly a challenge. Shall I?"

"Not yet, Sephiroth," Minias said softly. "We are a patrol unit only. We are to check on all the test subjects before we return for the evening. We do not act until we are told to do so."

Sephiroth sneered slightly and paused as he looked in the window again. "She appears to be sick, the donator."

Minias smirked. "He will be pleased to hear that," he murmured. "Come. We must go." He put a hand on Sephiroth's shoulder and both bishis disappeared.

~*~

By the time the third movie had started, Sera had migrated back to her room and fallen asleep. Some of the bishis had retired as well, but most everyone was still awake. Belle yawned quietly and snuggled down into the blankets, moving closer to Nyx. They were both lying on her bed now, and she was getting tired.

"Should I tell them to leave?" Nyx asked softly.

Belle shook her head a little. "Let them stay," she mumbled sleepily. "I can sleep with the movie on, no problem. Besides, it's nice." A faint smile touched her lips.

Nyx chuckled quietly and kissed her forehead. "Of course," he murmured, holding her close. However, he did make them turn down the volume a little bit to help Belle sleep. She needed it, after all. If she wore herself out too much, she'd just let the illness progress faster and she'd have less time. Though Nyx didn't want Belle to be unhappy, he wanted her to get sicker even less. He would do whatever he had to in order to keep her alive and as healthy as possible. He'd do anything to keep her with him, even if she hated him for it.

~*~

Sera groaned when someone shook her that morning. "Go 'way…" she muttered. "'S too early…" The rest of her complaints fell into inarticulate groans and grumbles.

"Too bad. Get up." Aoshi pulled the blanket away from her and paused when Sera yelped. Unfortunately, Aoshi had picked the one morning that Sera had decided not to wear sweatpants to bed and had gotten too warm. His cheeks slowly heated and he dropped the blanket.

Sera pulled the blankets up to her chin again with a squeak of mixed rage and indignant sleepiness.

Kenshin yawned and got up when he heard her, sitting up. "What's going on?" he asked softly, looking between the two.

Aoshi managed to force the color from his cheeks and the expression from his face. "Get up and get dressed, Sera," he ordered. "You still have training to do."

Sera glared at Aoshi from behind the blanket, anything from her nose and down covered by the blankets. "Go away and I will."

Aoshi rolled his eyes and left the room silently, shutting the door quietly.

Kenshin looked up at Sera from the floor with a small frown. "Sera-dono?"

"It's ok, Kenshin," she said softly. "I'm just sleepy. Go back to bed and cover your head for a minute while I get into the bathroom."

"Why…?" Kenshin asked warily.

Sera gave Kenshin a look and then pointed at her sweatpants, which had been kicked off and discarded in the middle of the night. They now lay on the ground at the foot of the bed. Kenshin blushed and instantly put his head down again, pulling a pillow over it. Sera got up, grabbed her backpack, and made a mad dash for it into the bathroom. And if Kenshin peeked just a little, who's to know?

Sera emerged twenty minutes later all dressed and ready to go with her kodachi on her belt again. She was getting used to it being there, its weight almost comforting against her thigh. Kenshin smiled slightly at her, also ready to go.

"Hold on, lemme leave them a quick note," Sera said, grabbing a piece of hotel stationary and a pen, reminding Anna that her other three were to go be part of the sales as well and to call if she needed anything. She left the note right in the middle of the bathroom mirror with a piece of tape so anyone would see it. "Ok, now we can go."

The two walked in silence to the gym and over to the corner they had taken over for training. Sera paused when she saw Aoshi sitting with a bag in front of him. The tall bishi pushed the bag towards Sera silently, and she sat in front of him.

"You have half an hour," Aoshi said before he went back to his own thoughts.

Sera grinned and picked up a donut, munching on it happily and drinking the bottle of water that came with the three donuts. Kenshin got one as well, and the last one was saved for later.

Aoshi stood at the end of the half hour and Sera did as well. "Stretching," he ordered, starting to stretch out. He didn't really need to anymore (he was so used to working all day) but it felt good and it was a good example for her. Sera grinned and followed his example, in a considerably better mood now.

~*~

After a quick lunch and chat with Belle, Shadow, Anna, and Kate all left again with a small herd of bishis to go let them be glomped again. None of the bishis actually minded; after all, they got treats out of it (extra blood for the vamps, feeding for Thomas, and more expensive goodies for the others). They all yelled good-byes to Belle and promised to come back earlier to watch more movies.

Belle sighed softly and settled in for the day, staring blankly at the TV as her group (what was left of it) milled around her or, occasionally, left for brief periods. It was going to be a long day…

~*~

Marik grinned as he sauntered up to the front of the crowd. "Yami," he said simply to the rather stunned Shadow. Anna let Yami out and Marik grinned, running over and tackling him. With a startled yelp and a bitten-off curse, the ex-pharaoh went down. "Hi love."

"What the hell?!" Yami's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and he started struggling. "Get off me!"

"Aw, don't you love me anymore?" Marik purred with a pout. "It hasn't been _that_ long…"

"I don't know you now get off me you crazy psychopath!" Yami yelled, trying to shove him off.

"Well crazy and psychopath do go together," Marik agreed, tapping his chin. "But I don't think I'll get up. It's too much fun tormenting you." He grinned when Yami started swearing at him, mentally checking the time in his head. Forty-five more seconds to go.

The trainers were all crowded around, curious and whispering. Marik grinned and leaned down, planting a big smacking kiss on Yami's cheek. The spirit nearly fainted from shock and embarrassment.

"Well, it was fun, darling," Marik said as he stood. "I'll see you later. Ta ta, shnookums!" Grinning like the maniac he was, he disappeared into the mid-day crowds again, leaving very stunned trainers and a very pissed-off Yami behind him. He darted into the forest outside town to go meet up with his ride and, hopefully, their new hostage. Still grinning, Marik slowed down once he reached the woods. Minias should be pleased with him, he figured. Maybe he'd even get a goodie this time.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I own the same things I owned before.

MSB: For some reason. "MSB" is reminding me of "LSD". Don't ask why. It's safer that way.

Oh yea. Totally your style. ^_^ No, I haven't explained what's wrong with Belle yet. That's coming up soon-ish, maybe… And Minias is a bishi. He's from the Rachel Morgan books. He's a demon, and a very powerful demon. And an ass. Who likes his coffee just so.

PLO: Yea, you were right. Minias, like I said above, is from the Rachel Morgan series written by Kim Harrison. He's a demon. He's not my own creation. And don't worry, you'll see lots more fun stuff coming up. ^_^

LH: Yea, I know. It surprised me too, sort of. Hey, I thought it was great.

Ooooh, what book?! Tell meh, woman!

Now on to the feature story.

~*~

"What the hell just happened?" Shadow asked no one in particular as she helped Yami up and moved him off to the side. He looked too traumatized to be glomped any more, and she would take care of her bishis.

"No idea," Anna said. "That Marik was insane. Moreso than usual." She peered at Yami for a moment before she shrugged, figuring he was okay, and went back to business. With a sigh, Shadow joined her.

~*~

Nyx knocked on the bathroom door after half an hour. The bishis seemed uneasy, and he was starting to feel it too; a slight sense of absence, just enough to be annoying and noticeable, but not painful. When the knock got no reply, he tried the door. Locked.

"I've got it," Yoko said, deftly pulling something out of his hair. A flick of the wrist and two seconds later, Yoko opened the door for Nyx. The half-bishi nodded his thanks and entered the bathroom.

"Belle?" Nyx walked over to the shower, since the water was on. The entire room was steamy, the mirrors fogged and clouded. Steam slid out the door and into the hotel room. Pulling aside the cheap curtains over the tub/shower combo, Nyx froze. Belle wasn't there. "Eclipse!"

The demon appeared next to him instantly, still holding a half-asleep Raenef in his arms. He swore softly and looked around, his eyes narrowed. "Can you smell anything?"

"No," Nyx growled. "There's too much steam and soap. I can't smell anything in here."

"Well she's not three miles away," Eclipse said as he moved back into the main room. "We'd know if she was. She's not that far away, I hope. I don't know where, though. The only thing we can do is spread out and search in all directions and see which direction is easiest."

Nyx scowled. He couldn't help with that part, since he didn't have the same bond to Belle that a bishi would. He was still uncomfortable at her absence, from his bishi half, but he knew it wasn't the same as with the others. He nodded grudgingly, still scowling.

Eclipse sighed softly and set Raenef on the bed. "Alright. We're going to have to split up, and someone will have to stay here at all times in case one of the others comes back. Do not tell the others what is going on yet. We don't need one of them running off and getting lost or hurt right now. Understood?" At the mumbled agreements, Eclipse nodded and started to tell them all which direction they were going, telling them to get moving and check in as soon as they had figured something out. Soon the only ones left in the room were Raenef, Thomas, and Duzell. They sat down to wait for news.

~*~

"You know I'm getting really tired of this!" Belle yelled as she hammered on the door. "I know you're there, you ass! Open this door and come talk to me right now! If you don't I'll find out where I am and have Eclipse blow this place to Hell!!" Her hands shook slightly as she pounded the door one last time before falling still. She didn't want to be stuck in the plain white room alone again. She'd go crazy if she was. Trembling, she backed away from the door when she heard footsteps.

The door opened and Minias grinned at her cheerily. "You make a lot of noise for such a little human," he said as he shut the door behind himself. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He produced a syringe from a pocket of his robes, looking at her.

Belle scowled at him. "No. No way. You are not getting more blood."

"We just need a little bit," Minias said soothingly. "My trainer simply needs to confirm something, and then he'll come speak to you personally. He's even offered to provide entertainment for you while we await the results."

Belle glared at him, covering her arms and backing away. "No. Get away from me."

Minias sighed and appeared in front of her. "Have it your way." He forced her face-first against the wall, easily overpowering her. He grunted as her foot connected with his shins and knees but got the necessary amount of blood before releasing her. "Someone will be along shortly." He opened the door and left.

As soon as she couldn't hear his footsteps, Belle threw herself at the door. There was no visible lock, and nothing had clicked when he shut the door, but it still refused to open. Growling to herself, Belle started pounding on the door again, muttering curses.

The door opened and Belle jumped, backing away hurriedly. Marik grinned as he stepped into the room. "Hello again, love. Hey, you look good now that you're not slung upside-down over his shoulder." His grin widened.

Belle groaned quietly. "This is not entertainment, this is torture," she muttered, going to sit in a corner. Her one consolation was that she wasn't alone, at least.

~*~

Sera sighed and sat down on the floor in the gym with a little groan. "Break, please," she said, looking way up at Aoshi.

The blue-eyed man rolled his eyes but nodded, grabbing a water bottle. He paused as he looked out the window, eyes narrowing slightly.

"What is it?" Kenshin asked, his hand resting on the hilt of his reverse blade sword.

"Those two look like Belle's," Aoshi said softly, nodding to Hiei and Yoko outside. "And they look like they're looking for something."

Kenshin walked over and peered out the window as well. "That they do," he said softly. "Perhaps they are getting something for Belle-dono?"

Sera frowned and pushed herself to her feet, putting her kodachi back through her belt. "Maybe," she said softly. "Doesn't look like it, though. This looks more serious than that." Frowning, she watched the two disappear down the road. "I'm going to go check."

Kenshin grabbed her arm before she could run off without him again. "Wait, Sera-dono. You're not going alone."

"Of course not," Sera said innocently. "So hurry your butts up and come with me." She picked up her backpack and put it on, wincing slightly as she stretched out tired muscles.

Aoshi rolled his eyes but led the way out of the gym. "As long as you carry everything I'll consider it training," he said as he led the way, following the two bishis.

"Are you alright, Sera-dono?" Kenshin asked softly.

"Yea, fine. I'm just worried," Sera said softly. "I mean, those two are practically inseparable from Kuronue normally, and they're all generally happy and joking around and playing tricks and stuff. Those two weren't." Sera frowned and shook her head.

"True," Kenshin said softly. "We'll see soon enough, that we will." He wrapped an around Sera's shoulders comfortingly, walking next to her silently.

Yoko and Hiei glanced at each other and nodded imperceptibly. Yoko went into the nearest soup shop while Hiei wandered a little farther down the street, looking in the other shops uninterestedly.

Sera stopped outside the shop, glancing at Aoshi. He shrugged and leaned against the outside wall. Rolling her eyes, Sera waited for Yoko. He emerged a moment later with a bag in his hands.

"Hi, Sera," the fox said with a grin. "What's up?"

"Getting soup?" Sera asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup. Belle demanded soup, and Hiei got volunteered to go with me since Kuronue was being used as a snuggly, last time I checked." Yoko grinned at her. "Now, I'm going to go collect the midget so we can deliver food. Any idea how the others are doing with their 'business'?"

"Pretty well, as far as I can tell," Sera said, starting to walk with him as they headed towards Hiei. "It seems like they've been having a great time, too."

"Good. I know Thomas has been." Yoko snickered. "Oi, Hiei, time to go back."

Hiei walked back over to them, rolling his eyes. "Come on. Belle will have a fit if we don't get her food to her." He nodded to Sera before the two demons turned and headed back to the hotel.

"See? Nothing at all," Aoshi said. "You've had your break, now let's get back to actual training."

Groaning, Sera followed Aoshi, grumbling under her breath. One of these days…

~*~

Belle looked up when the door opened again. Marik left silently as Minias came in, the trainer from the first time following the demon. Her eyes narrowed, Belle stood, glaring at both of them.

"Relax, Belle," the man said with a grin. "We're not going to take any more blood from you for now. No, I'm here to offer you a proposal."

Belle froze, eyeing him suspiciously. "A proposal?"

"Yes. You see, I have something you need, and you have something I want. Very simple, really." He smiled, though it merely chilled the other trainer.

"What do you have that I need?" Belle asked skeptically. She kept one eye on Minias, the other on the man as she leaned back against the wall.

"Your cure." The man smiled when Belle jerked upright again. "From studying your blood, I found several interesting things, one of which being the cure you need. It is specially designed for you, Belle, since you are, shall we say, unique. You have genetic quirks and abnormalities that I have never seen in a living human before." His grin widened.

"How do I know you're not lying?" Belle asked suspiciously, forcing herself to relax, though her heart was pounding. "You could poison me with whatever it is you're offering me. I have no reason to trust you. This is the second time you've kidnapped me."

The man laughed. "Ah yes, I had forgotten that you might not believe me. Very well." He grinned at her, apparently amused. "If I wanted you dead, dear Belle, I could have had you killed several times over by now. But I need you alive and healthy for an experiment of mine, you see." His grin widened. "All I need is more of your blood. Yours and your sister's, dear little Sera."

"Leave Sera alone you goddamn bastard," Belle growled, taking a step forward. "I can't barter for her, nor will I. So you'll have to find something else to bargain for."

The man laughed. "Oh, how delightful! I bet Sera would give her blood gladly if she knew what a good cause it was for." His eyes danced when Belle tensed. "Ah. You've not seen fit to tell her, then."

"I haven't told her because I didn't want her to worry," Belle growled, glaring at him. "And it's none of your business."

"Oh, but it is," the man said, leaning forward. "You see, I'm a scientist. You are an excellent study, but I need more of your blood so I can continue my studies. I can't get any if you die, nor can I get any information. Therefore, it is beneficial for me to keep you alive, and since you are worse now than you were when last we met, I have concluded that you do not have a cure yet. So I am offering you one."

Belle's eyes narrowed. "So you'll give me my cure if I give you blood. That's it?"

"That's it," he agreed with a grin.

"Why don't I believe you?"

"Because you are a mistrustful person now, and you want to keep yourself from hoping too much in case I turn out to be lying or cheating you."

Belle was silent for several moments. "I can't decide right now," she said at last, her voice quiet. "I need to talk to Sera about it if you want her blood too."

His grin widened, reminding her forcibly of the Cheshire cat. "Good enough," he said. "We will find you again in half a week and ask for your answer." He opened the door. "Minias will escort you out." He left silently, white lab coat billowing out behind him as he strode down the hallway.

Belle sighed and walked out into the hallway, jerking when Minias took her elbow. She was forced to walk with him, trying to figure out what to tell the others.

~*~

Lucifer growled to himself as he flew over the trees, peering between the branches and leaves to try and find his trainer. Adjusting his course slightly, he perched on a high tree branch briefly to look around. He couldn't see Eclipse and Nyx, though the two were supposed to be going in the same general direction. He couldn't see any of the others, either. Perhaps he'd gone farther than he'd intended?

Motion down below the treetops caught his attention and he dropped to the ground silently, his eyes narrowed as he focused on the motion. At first all he could see was someone stumbling along but then the sound of a soft sob reached his ears, and his heart wrenched in his chest. Without a second thought, he ran over to the person and hugged her, wrapping his arms around the both of them and holding her tightly.

Belle rested against Lucifer's chest, sniffling. She couldn't make this decision on her own, and she wouldn't involve Sera if it could be avoided at all. But she wanted to live, damn it all! She wanted to live and not have to worry about this stupid illness all the time. She hated living like this. She just wanted things to go back to how they had been.

Lucifer picked up his trainer and carried her back the way he'd come, not willing to try flying with her. She was upset enough; he didn't want to do anything to make it worse. He murmured soothingly to her in Latin while he walked, searching for Nyx and Eclipse.

Though it took him half an hour, he managed to find the other two. Nyx started running when he saw Lucifer carrying someone else, and the Fallen handed over his trainer without complaint.

"Hi, Nyx," Belle said softly with a small smile as she looked up at him. "I'm sorry if you got worried."

"What happened?" he asked gently, brushing some of her hair back from her face.

Belle rubbed the inside of her elbow absently, looking at the other two. "We might as well call everyone in so I can tell all of you at once. I'll need your input on something."

Slightly confused, the two bishis and the half-bishi obeyed, taking their trainer back to the hotel before going to call the others in. Nyx refused to leave Belle, however, staying with her and sending Kuronue and Thomas out instead.

Within twenty minutes, all the bishis were gathered and waiting, all of them restless and curious. Belle took a deep breath to steady herself and started speaking, telling them about the man's proposal.

~*~

Aoshi stood a few feet away from Sera, watching with mild amusement as she struggled to her feet again. He'd just knocked her on her ass for the fifteenth time in a row.

"That's enough, Aoshi," Kenshin said, stepping forward to interfere. "She's done enough for today. She's tired, and she won't improve if she continues training when she's exhausted, that she won't."

Aoshi paused, seeing the logic in that. "Very well. You can have the rest of the evening off, such as it is," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Thanks," Sera said, putting her kodachi back on her belt and sighing. "You're a real slave driver, you know that?"

Aoshi grinned. "I know. Life is more fun that way." He sauntered outside under Sera's amazed gaze.

"Did he just…?" she asked, turning to look at Kenshin with big wide eyes.

Kenshin chuckled. "Yes he did. If you think grinning is bad I shudder to think what you would have thought of one of the ones at home, that I do."

"Why?"

"I once knew an Aoshi that never stopped smiling and made his hair blonde." Kenshin couldn't help but grin. "He was caught and released by three trainers."

"Wow. That is… different." Shaking her head, Sera led the way back to the hotel. She managed to trudge up the stairs (the elevator was out of order) and went into her room. She paused when she heard talking in the other room. "I guess Belle feels better," she said softly.

Kenshin nodded and placed himself near the door casually as Sera took off her shoes and took her hair out of its braid. She trudged into the bathroom to take a shower, having gotten all sweaty from training, and Kenshin relaxed in a chair, his eyes half-closed. He couldn't hear through the thick door separating the two rooms, but he could tell it wasn't good, whatever it was. He just hoped it wouldn't hurt Sera.

~*~

"No," was Nyx's first reaction. "Absolutely not. He's probably lying to you."

"But what if he's not?" Duo demanded. "From what Belle said, he has no reason to lie. He has no reason to kill her. What if he really can help her and we're blowing off her only chance to get better?"

Eclipse sighed. "There is still a chance that one of the other doctors will have a cure."

"But there's no sure chance of that," Thomas argued. "There's no guarantee that this will work either, but it's a better chance that being stuck with meds to slow the process for the next year, if she lives that long."

Belle flinched and Nyx glared at Thomas, opening his mouth to yell at the White Court vampire.

"It seems to me that this is Belle's best chance at the moment," Duzell said softly. "Even if the man is lying, I seriously doubt he would kill her. He may not be able to cure her, but he will not kill her. If the cure works, I will be thankful. If it doesn't, we can continue searching." He shrugged slightly.

Nyx glared at him but Eclipse held up a hand to keep him from speaking. "As much as I disagree with the idea, I believe that Duzell is right. He may be beneficial after all. I would advise you to agree to his terms, Belle."

"But what about Sera?" Belle asked, frowning and rubbing the inside of her elbow again. Nyx caught her hand to keep her from doing so.

"Talk to her!" Duo said, walking over to sit next to her and ignoring the brief glare from Nyx. "Tell her what's going on. She won't mind. She'll tell you to agree."

Belle sighed and shook her head. "I still have a week," she muttered. "I'll have to talk to her before then. I'll decide after that, but not before." She closed her eyes briefly. "I'll tell the others, too. Just in case… in case something goes wrong."

All her bishis shifted nervously and glanced at each other, uncomfortable. Mutters fluttered across the room, ugly and quiet.

"Don't think like that," Nyx said softly, holding her close. "You'll be fine. I won't let you die."

Sighing, Belle said nothing, resting back against him. "I'll talk to her tomorrow," she said softly. "To all of them. They deserve to know, no matter what the outcome. For now I just want food and rest and quiet. The first person to make me think about it loses his head." She smiled faintly and the mood lifted as the others bustled about getting food and a few other things for her. None of them really minded. But they grumbled, to keep up appearances.

~*~

Anna, Shadow, and Kate headed back up to the hotel room with the group of bishis, carrying four jars between them. All three were very pleased with their earnings (since Anna and Shadow had agreed to give Kate a little bit of what they earned every night) as they went back inside, joking around. Most of the bishis had retired to their balls to rest until dinner time. All three paused when they saw a girl standing outside the door to Anna's room.

Eliora pushed her hair out of her face again and knocked on the door, a little louder this time. It opened almost immediately, and Sera looked at her, hair dripping. "Oh! Sorry! I didn't know you were in the shower!"

"It's fine," Sera said with a shrug and a smile. "I was just drying off. So what's up?"

"Just checking on you," she said with a smile. "I saw you in the gym earlier. You looked really good. Oh, and I found this outside that door, but the person won't let me in!" Eliora pulled a small vial out of her pocket and passed it to Sera. "Sorry if I bothered you."

"You didn't, don't worry about it!" Sera smiled and took the vial. "Thanks. I'll see you around sometime, right?"

Eliora nodded, her Clark smiling behind her. "Well, we're gonna go get dinner. See you later!" She headed off down the hallway, her bishis following her, chatting with them.

Shaking her head, Sera looked down at the vial and then over at the others. They'd all gone quiet, looking at the little vial too. Sighing, Sera shook her head and retreated into the room. The other three entered as well as Sera walked over to knock on the door between the rooms.

It opened before she could touch it, and Lucifer caught her hand before it landed against his chest. "Come in," he said, stepping aside. "All of you. Belle wants to talk to you."

Sera stared at him for a moment before she sighed, muttered, "Oh no, not again," and entered.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I own exactly the same crap. Do I still need this thing?

PLO: Oh yea, Belle is just a magnet for trouble and danger. It's so much fun! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and learn a few things from it. Have fun. :)

SS13: No problem. Everyone gets busy this time of year. It's nuts. But I still enjoyed it. And Eliora may still come in again after this, I'm just not sure exactly when. We'll have to wait and see…

LH: Well now you get to. And I haven't been on AIM in a while. My comp's kinda sucky and it's getting to the end of the school year so I'm getting all sorts of crap thrown at me now. It kinda really sucks. And I don't know about the 13th particularly, but I've had trouble sleeping through the night for a while.

~*~

Belle watched as the others settled in the various chairs and spots in her room, looking at each of them in turn. Her eyes fell on Sera, looking at her with confusion and worry. The elder trainer closed her eyes briefly, sat up a little straighter, and looked at the others as she spoke. "I'm sick. Moreso than any of you think. I know I haven't told you anything, because I didn't want you to worry and because I was hoping we'd find a cure before I had to tell you, but I'm very sick. I have been for ten months, since just before I met Eclipse." She glanced at the demon, who nodded to her as encouragement to go on.

"Duo and I were traveling; it was just the two of us. I'd been here for two months. We came to a fork in the road and went left; no one had warned us that danger lay ahead. It was stormy that night, and I slipped and fell into a river. Duo ran after me, and I managed to haul myself out on a vine. I slipped a few times, and I cut my hands open on thorns or something." She looked down at her hands, at the thin pale scars adorning her palms and fingers from that night. "The vine had some kind of coating over it that's poisonous to humans. Within hours, I had become ill. My temperature was close to 105 degrees, and I was coughing and cold. Duo managed to carry me for a little ways as the sun was rising, and we had wandered unknowingly close to the Demon Diary territory. Eclipse heard us and came to investigate and warn us off. He saw that I was sick and had Duo put me down before he did… something. I don't know what. He took a peek in my head, or something." She glanced at the black-haired demon, who merely grinned.

"Anyway, something he saw there convinced him that I was worth the trouble of saving, so he told us to stay there. We waited for what felt like hours, but was probably only half an hour. Duo stayed with me and refused to let go, even when Eclipse came back. He blindfolded both of us and took us into the city. We stayed there for three days before they had done everything they could for me. Eclipse took us to the edge of the territory and sent us on our way. Duo and I made very slow progress towards the nearest human town, and Eclipse followed us for nearly a week before he decided to stay with us. He made himself known and spoke to me while Duo was asleep, and I caught him. He's been with me ever since."

Belle sighed softly and shook her head before she continued speaking. "We wandered all over the place, talking to every doctor we could find. None of them had a cure for me, and only two of them had something they said would slow the progress and make it an easier passing for me." She grimaced at the words, swallowing hard. "We still haven't found anyone that can help me. Until now. The man who kidnapped me said he's a scientist and he claims that he has a cure for me, but he wants something in return."

Sera looked about too horrified to speak, her eyes wide and her face pale. She was watching her sister silently, apparently rather terrified.

"What does he want?" Shadow spoke up from the back, her voice quiet and a little shaky.

"Blood. From Sera and I both." Belle looked at Sera silently. "You can say no if you want," she offered gently.

"No," Sera managed to say, her voice rough with emotion. "I want to. I'll give him blood if it means you'll be okay."

Belle managed a weak smile and nodded. "I'll let him know."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Anna asked quietly, sounding a little hurt.

"I didn't want any of you to worry in case we could find a cure," Belle said softly. "We've all been looking for one for a long time. We thought I had some time left, but I only have a year or so unless his medicine works. I was planning on telling you all, I just didn't know when I would." She grimaced. "I had my decision made for me, apparently."

Shadow opened her mouth to ask something and Eclipse stood, moving in between his trainer and the others. "Alright, that's enough. Questions later. She needs rest. Out. Go on. Shoo. Go." He shooed them out towards the door, glaring down at them.

Sera ducked around the tall demon and went over to Belle, hugging her silently. Belle sighed softly and returned it, holding her little sister close for a moment before releasing her. Sera headed back into her room dutifully, and Eclipse shut the door behind them, locking it silently.

"Well," Belle said after a moment, "that's one thing done. Now I just need to get in touch with him."

~*~

Red eyes flashed and lips curved in a cruel smile. Minias stepped back into the shadows of the nearest trees, his eyes glowing faintly in the dim lighting. His master would certainly be pleased with this turn of events. Now he'd have two sources to work from instead of one. Oh yes, he would be very pleased indeed…

~*~

"Did you know?" Sera's voice broke the silence, quiet, unobtrusive, almost hurt.

"Know what?" Anna looked over at the younger with a small frown.

"About Belle." Voice almost cracking, Sera shut her mouth and sat on the edge of her bed, looking down at her hands. "That she was sick."

Anna shook her head slowly, sinking down to sit next to the younger trainer. "No, I didn't know. She never let anything on. I mean, I just thought she had to take extra vitamins or something. I had to for a while. And I never asked her about it, because sometimes people are sensitive about that, you know? I just never guessed…"

Sera nodded, satisfied, and leaned against Anna's side. "She never told me anything."

"I wouldn't either, if I was her." Anna sighed softly and let her arm drape across the younger's shoulders. "I mean, she didn't want to worry you. I can't blame her for that. I'm surprised that she didn't tell us sooner, but I don't blame her. Even if she had told us, there wouldn't have been much for us to do, and I know we probably would have coddled her if she'd told us." Anna shrugged. "Life's no fun like that. You don't get to take any risks."

"I know," Sera said softly with a sigh, letting her head rest on the other's shoulder briefly. "But still." She sighed and shrugged slightly. "I just hate feeling helpless and not being able to help her. It pisses me off."

Anna laughed quietly. "We all feel like that sometimes," she said quietly. "Don't worry about it too much. She wouldn't want you to worry about her." She grinned and hugged the younger for a moment before she got up. "Interested in watching a really fun game of poker?"

"Sure…" Sera got up cautiously and watched as Anna put cards on the table, calling out a few of her bishis. Eric, Roy Mustang, Al, and Murphy all found seats at the table and Eric dealt the cards, his face a blank mask. Sera moved closer to watch as they started the game, going round after round. Each round was usually accompanied by several various swears, curses, and cackles. Most everyone was watching the rounds by now, teasing the players and trying to make them crack. That quickly stopped when Murphy pulled a gun on Pavi.

Sera retreated to her bed after watching nearly a dozen rounds, taking her socks off. She didn't bother changing fully, instead hiding under the blankets and squirming out of her jeans, pulling sweatpants on instead. Kenshin sat on the floor next to the side of her bed, his eyes on the conglomeration of bishis and Anna all watching the poker players.

"Are you alright?"

Sera nearly jumped at the soft question from her first bishi. She smiled after a moment and nodded, though Kenshin's back was to her. "Yea, I'm fine. Are you?"

A soft chuckle met her ears and the ex-assassin turned to look at her. "Of course, that I am." The two exchanged smiles before Kenshin returned to his 'guard duty'.

"Well, I think I'm going to try to get some sleep with that lot making a racket over there." Sera grinned. "Don't bother bugging them, they're having fun. I'll get to sleep."

"Good night, Sera-dono," Kenshin said by way of agreement.

"Night, Kenshin," Sera murmured as she laid down, snuggling into the bed. Her eyes closed, shutting out most of the light, and slowly the noises died down to mere background noise. She drifted, and she dreamed.

_Bright colors and flashes of faces blinded her, lit from behind by lights. A short scream, a short, loud laugh, and then silence. Darkness. Stillness. Nothing._

Sera woke with a jolt as Aoshi touched her shoulder. Scrambling back and hitting the headboard, she stared wide-eyed at the tall man until rational thought caught up with her and she sighed softly, running a hand through her hair. Nodding to Aoshi, she muttered something along the lines of, "I'll be up in a few." The bishonen wisely did not protest the point and slid away from her, silent as a ghost.

Rubbing her eyes, the trainer got up and dressed silently, finding Kenshin already awake when she emerged. She walked down the stairs, thumping down them almost silently and grabbing a bagel on her way out. Kenshin followed her silently, her faithful shadow.

Sighing to herself, Sera started stretching before Aoshi had a chance to say anything, making the taller man raise his eyebrows. However, they started working silently, Aoshi instructing her where he needed to. The morning passed with a slow surety that was becoming routine for Sera, working as if through a dull haze over her mind, trying to puzzle through her dreams. She hardly noticed the other two, simply working, drowning herself in repetitive motions and mantras.

It wasn't until lunchtime that she noticed something was wrong. Something on a subconscious level, something that dawned on her slowly until it finally registered with a final ping. The ping may actually have been the clatter as her fingers lost their grip on the hilt of her kodachi, sending it to the floor. Before the final vibrations had left the blade, Sera was gone, running out of the gym and back to the hotel. Ignoring the startled yells of trainers and bishis alike as she hurtled past them, she took the stairs three at a time, going up to Belle's room and managing to push the door open.

"Sera?" Nyx frowned as he stood, keeping one of his hand clasped in Belle's.

"Something's not right here," Sera said, walking over to Belle, completely ignorant of the rest of the world. "Something else behind all this. Something not good."

Belle's eyes met her sister's, and the same niggling suspicion from questions that had arisen in her mind dawned to the elder as well. "Something in our blood," she answered quietly. "Something amiss in our DNA, perhaps."

"Something that he wants to use," Sera said, more urgently now as she sat down next to Belle.

"Something that he can use to his own advantage."

"That's why he wants our blood."

"That's why he needs you alive and is willing to offer you a cure."

The two stared at each other for several more moments, both elated and chilled by the thoughts that had occurred to each. Sera trembled slightly, suddenly afraid.

"What the Hell are you two talking about?" Nyx asked, almost growled, as he sank down into a crouch in front of the two.

As one, the two sisters turned their gaze to the half-bishi, and he blinked, rather surprised at the look in their eyes. That was just a little unsettling.

"The man," Belle said softly. "There's something in our blood, something in our DNA perhaps, that he wants to use for himself. That's why he wanted to keep me alive. I'm useful to him. That's why he's offering me a cure for nothing but blood. He's doing something, and it's probably not legal or at least not good for the rest of the world." Belle took a deep breath. "I want someone to track me when I go to see him tomorrow."

Nyx stiffened while Eclipse started swearing softly in a foreign language of some kind. The others shifted uneasily, murmurs of discontent and worry spreading through them.

"Why tomorrow?" Nyx asked sharply. He did not look happy.

"He said half a week. Besides, I need to speak to him regardless. He probably has one of his bishis keeping tabs on me even now, to see what my decision is and make sure I don't try to sneak out of town or anything." Belle sighed and ran a hand through her hair in mild aggravation. "Besides, I want to see him on my own terms, not whenever he summons me." A grimace twisted her lips.

"I'm going with you."

Kenshin and Aoshi had arrived just in time to hear the last two statements from Belle and Sera. Kenshin stepped forward, his eyes narrowing and flashing gold.

"You are not going with her, that you aren't," Kenshin said sternly.

"I was part of the deal too!" Sera said hotly, sitting up straighter and glaring up at her bishi. "I'm going with Belle whether you like it or not!"

"You most certainly are not. You could get hurt."

"I'd rather go when I wanted to than be dragged off sometime later when we least expect it!"

"You're not going. It's dangerous. We have no way of knowing what is happening, that we don't. We need you to stay here."

"No, I'm going with Belle." Sera's lips pressed into a firm, stubborn line, determination gleaming in her eyes. All of Belle's bishis knew the look; Belle had her own 'stubborn, unruly, unwilling to listen to reason' look.

Kenshin's eyes narrowed and he glanced at Aoshi and the others for support. Aoshi stepped back, clearly staying out of it, while Eclipse stepped closer to the bed in thought.

"That could work to our benefit," the demon said after a moment. "We can make two trackers and give one to each and possibly get an estimate on how big the place is. We will monitor them closely and should be able to get to them should anything happen."

Kenshin, looking none to happy for being outvoted, nodded once and leaned back against a wall to wait out the rest of the conversation.

"What kind of tracking device will we use?" Belle asked, looking between all her bishis. Her hand found one of Sera's, holding on to her sister tightly.

"Al can probably mix something up for you to use," Nyx said after a moment.

"I can make one or two," Yoko said after Nyx had finished. "Well, Hiei and Kuro and I can. We'll just need a few things."

Belle nodded. "Good enough?" she asked Eclipse. At the demon's nod, she nodded her own satisfaction. "Okay. You three go get whatever you need. Nyx, go get Al and ask him what he can do. Everyone else, either try to help or stay out of the way." As the bishis all hurried to comply, Belle caught Lucifer by the wrist. "Can you go get some food for us?" She nodded to herself and Sera.

"Um. Sure. What kind?" Lucifer's brow furrowed slightly as he looked between the two.

"Whatever they have downstairs," Belle replied, releasing the winged bishonen. "Any kind of food sounds good right now. Thanks." Giving him a wan smile, she settled back against her pillows, closing her eyes briefly. "Sometimes I really hate life."

"Sure is a bitch," Sera agreed, laying down next to her sister and using Belle's stomach as a pillow.

"Right now it sure is."

"For now. Oh well. Let's get some rest before we try to tackle anything else."

~*~

The others came home early to see what they could do to help. By that time, they had already decided to bring dinner home with them, meaning that for the next half-hour everyone was too loud and ravenous to be coherent.

Anna was the first to get any information, going and bugging Al until he told her what he'd done.

"I just made three charms," he said, shrugging as if it were nothing. "They're all connected and monitor the condition of each person carrying them. If something happens to one person, the other two amulets turn red. Simple." He shrugged.

"How is that tracking?" Anna asked, confused.

Rolling his eyes, Al took one of the amulets (Sera's, since she wasn't using it) and moved across the room. "Here. Hold this." He thrust it at Anna.

The instant Anna took the amulet, she realized how it worked. All three amulets had a slight pull towards each other. Anna shrugged and walked over to Sera, handing the amulet back.

"Sera, we're borrowing your laptop!" Yoko yelled from the other room. Since the three thieves were tinkering with electronics, they had prudently moved as far away from Harry as they could. The wizard had grumbled but retreated into Sera's and Anna's room again to stay out of the way.

"Don't kill it!" Sera yelled back as consent. Shaking her head, she sighed and sank down next to Belle again. "This is nuts."

"Yea, I know," Belle said calmly. "We're all mad here anyway, so why not use that to our advantage?" She grinned briefly, though it was all a show of bravado to hide her own worry and fear.

"Why indeed," Sera muttered, watching everyone milling around, worry making their movements sharp and forced cheer causing their laughter to be higher, brighter than normal. This was so crazy she didn't even know how to describe it, but she was still going to do it. "Why indeed."

~*~

The next morning dawned bright and early and found Belle and Sera already—or rather, still—awake. They both wore blue jeans and black t-shirts, even going so far as to pull their hair into identical buns. The only difference between the two was a slight height difference.

"You leaving?" Anna asked quietly from her bed.

"Yeah. We'll be home by tonight, I hope," Belle said with a faint smile. "Take care of yourself."

"You too." Anna regarded them seriously for a moment before she grinned. "Otherwise I'll have to kick your asses myself."

"See ya, Anna," Sera said, nodding to her friend. The two trainers left the room and went into the hallway. Kenshin, Eclipse, and Nyx were waiting to see them out and to the edge of the woods. The sisters left them there silently, walking into the woods on their own.

Silence reigned as the world woke, birds chirping and diving around them, the odd animal calling in the distance. All was silent apart from the crunch of leaves under their feet, their own breathing, and, of course, the occasional curse or swear when one of them tripped. The two amulets hung under their shirts, and each had a tracking/communication device in her hair. The idea was one-way communication; anything the girls heard all the bishis would hear through Sera's computer. Rather handy, really. Yoko and the two thieves were better than Belle or Sera had guessed.

They'd been walking for no more than half an hour when suddenly Sera yelped and wasn't there anymore. Belle looked around, hearing Sera's curses and yelps, but unable to see her. Then she looked up.

Sera was dangling by her ankle twenty feet in the air, flailing helplessly.

"Hold on," Belle said, thinking fast. "Just hold still and try to pull yourself up. I'll come help—"

She never got farther than that. As she stepped forward, a second trap tightened around her ankle and suddenly she was staring at the ground.

"Well crap," Sera muttered, looking around. "Any ideas now, genius?"

"Well well, lookie what I caught today!" The person below them sounded delighted, and both looked down to see crazy blonde hair and insane purple eyes. Marik. "Two little kittens. Now, shall I torture them or bring them home? Torture or bring home? Decisions, decisions…"

While Marik debated below them, the two exchanged rather panicked glances and Sera whispered two sentences that described it all: "Oh shit. We are so screwed."


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I own nada but for a few characters. Get it? Got it? Good.

PLO: Oh just wait. It gets even better. It always does. And everything will be made clear sometime soon-ish sort of maybe…

MSB: No, it's not bad. I am too. Don't worry, Kate will show up more too.

~*~

"Marik," a deeper voice said as a figure in purple stepped into the clearing. "As much as I love watching you play with your toys, we need to bring these two back."

"Aw, damn," Marik said, pouting. "Just a little bit of torture, Minias?"

"No." Minias looked up at the two. "Hello again, ladies. Care for some help?"

"Go fuck yourself," Sera snarled.

"Sera!" Belle said, startled.

"What? I heard it at school."

"Watch your mouth young lady! I have enough swearing between my lot!" Belle glared at her younger sister, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Sorry," Sera muttered, looking down. Which was really looking up. Wow that was disconcerting; to look at the sky instead of the floor.

"This may hurt," Minias said with an evil grin as he unwound the first rope from a tree, lowering Sera to the ground. A little bit above ground level, he 'dropped' the rope, letting Sera fall and land herself. "Oops. So sorry, love. It slipped." A vindictive gleam in his eyes, he went about getting Belle down, doing so more gently, while Sera swore and tried to kill him with her glare.

Marik grabbed Sera from behind. "Sorry love, can't risk you running off on us," he said with a grin, tying her hands behind her back and holding on to the end of the rope.

"So much for hospitality," Sera grumbled, glaring at him over her shoulder. "I feel like I'm going to a slaughterhouse."

"You are," Minias said quite calmly. "You just don't know it yet." Touching the two trainers on the shoulder, they all vanished.

~*~

"What the Hell just happened?!"

"I don't know!"

"Don't look at me! I wasn't there!"

"I am going to kill them!"

Eclipse sighed as he watched Nyx rant and rave and be pissed while the others tried to figure out what had happened. "We can't undo it, so the best we can do is go with it," he snapped finally. "They're inside now, so we can figure out the location of the compound. Keep listening in and figure out what's going on."

People scrambled to obey him, and Nyx glared, going over to sulk by the bed. Sighing, Eclipse shook his head and gently shushed his son, starting to feel the tug of Belle's presence farther away himself. Hopefully she wouldn't go much farther away or else everyone would start getting jumpy…

~*~

"Now," Minias said, looking at the two, "to see what you brought with you. Hold still, please, and I won't have to ask Marik to restrain you." He went to Belle first, glancing over her clothes and pulling out the charm around her neck. "Well well. What's this for, love?"

"My complexion," Belle said dryly. "I have red spots."

Minias snorted and dropped the charm off to the side, leaving it on a table. "What about yours?"

"Strength so I can beat your scrawny butt into the wall," Sera said, glowering and crossing her arms over her chest. She swore she could almost hear some of the bishis laughing at that.

"Sorry, but that's not on the agenda." He dropped her charm off to the side as well. "Anything else?"

"I don't see anything," Marik said, eyeing them both. "They look clean. They left their toys at home, though."

"Oh well. We don't need them," Minias said. "This will suffice for now." He took Belle's arm in his and strolled with her down the hallway. Marik just grabbed Sera and hauled her out when she dug her feet in like a mule. "Right this way for your first shot."

"Shot?" Belle nearly flinched. Before she'd never had a problem with needles, but after this… She never wanted to see a needle again.

Minias chuckled darkly. "Only way. Unless you'd rather not?"

"I'll live," Belle murmured, subdued. For now. "Where are you taking Sera?"

"Same room," Minias replied with a grin. "We need a blood sample from her too."

Sera groaned. "Can I just kick you instead?"

Minias's lips twitched, though if in agitation or amusement Belle couldn't tell. He simply steered her into a room and sat her in a chair before getting out two syringes, one full and one empty. "Kaiba, kid, you ready?"

"Here." Kaiba held out his hand for Belle's syringe. "I'll take hers. You get the girl."

"Girl?!" Sera glared at them indignantly. "I am not a girl! I'm too old to be a girl!"

"And I'm twice your age, now sit down and shut up." Minias shoved her back into her seat, holding the syringe above her arm. "Whenever you're ready."

Without a work, Seto Kaiba slid the needle easily into Belle's arm, injecting its contents. Belle stiffened but didn't make a noise. Sera wasn't so helpful. She yelped and tried to kick Minias when he jabbed her inner elbow.

"Are you finished yet?" a cold voice asked. Saito stood in the doorway. "He wants to speak to them."

"All done," Minias said with a smirk. "Have fun." He strode out of the room, half-dragging Marik with him.

"How did we get stuck with them?" Saito asked, his lip curling slightly.

"We didn't. You did." Kaiba strode past him back into the hallway, leaving the Meiji swordsman with the two trainers. With a growl, he corralled them both into the hallway and started marching them down to the office. He hated his job some days…

~*~

"Good thing I disguised those clips," Yoko said softly, watching the screen. "They're actually getting closer to us, now."

"What?" Eclipse strode over to look at the map on the screen. It was true. The two little dots that were Sera and Belle were moving back closer to the town. "Hmm. How curious." If they were moving closer in the middle of the woods, they must be underground, and there were always other ways to get in and out of an underground base. Now all they had to do was find said emergency exits and put them to good use. "Yoko?"

"You got it," Yoko said with a grin. "I would say smoke 'em out, but that might hurt Belle. We'll wait and see where they come out, and then we'll do a full recon of the area."

"Excellent." Ignoring the confused looks of the others, Eclipse folded himself into a chair to plot. No, not just plot. Plot evil and horrible things to do to those who dared hurt his trainer.

~*~

"Ah, Belle, Sera. Please, be seated," the mad scientist (as Sera now not-so-affectionately nicknamed him) said as he turned to smile at them. His smile was charming, disarming, innocent… and Sera hated him almost instantly.

"What do you want?"

"Hmm. You're not very like your sister, are you?" he mused, looking her over.

"No, I'm not. I have a shorter temper and I'm more violent," Sera said, crossing her arms over her chest rather aggressively.

"Hmm. How refreshing." He smiled wider and motioned for the two to sit again. "I simply wish to speak to you before you go."

"Again? You don't waste your time, do you?" Belle remarked dryly, sitting silently. Sera stood next to her. "What did you wish to talk about?"

"The future." His eyes gleamed as he sat, looking at them as one might look at a big, juicy steak (or vegetable for those vegetarians out there). "You two are the beginnings of a future reign. Imagine if your bishis could not wander more than a mile away from you. You'd have almost complete control."

"You're a psychopath," Sera growled.

"Not quite, my dear. Besides, if anything, I'd be closer to a sociopath." He grinned this time, and Sera felt herself pale. "Now, I want to see you both back here in two weeks, or else I'll have to go find you again. I won't be happy if I have to go find you."

"What if we don't come?" Sera asked with false bravado. "What if we go away?"

"Your dear sister shall die. This is a series of treatments, not a one-time deal. Do you really want to risk that?"

Belle rose silently. "Come on," she said softly to Sera. "It's time to go back." Without looking at the scientist, she said, "We'll be back. Two weeks."

With a pleased smile, he led the way out. "Minias, it's time to return our two guests," he said.

Minias nodded. Putting a hand on each of their shoulders, the three of them vanished.

~*~

"Where are they?"

"I don't know! My tracking devices were not meant for teleportation!"

"Well find them!" Nyx glowered at the fox demon, his fingers twitching and itching to punch something. He was going to kill that demon…

"My amulets," Al whined. "I'm not going to get them back…"

Eclipse paused. "Are they still working?"

Al glanced down at his own. "Yea."

"Good. Keep yours and hope they don't destroy the others."

"Why?" Al eyed the black-haired demon warily.

"Because," Eclipse said calmly, "that is how we're going to find their hide out."

~*~

"I hate demons," Belle grumbled as she dusted herself off from where Minias had dumped them both outside town in the forest. "I really do."

Sera groaned as she got to her feet. "I think he dropped me on a rock…"

Belle grimaced as she looked at the town. "Well, I guess we should head back and tell them the news, if they didn't hear already."

"I'm sure they did," Sera said. "We still have the other things in our hair. They're probably freaking out right now." She grinned, imagining all of them freaking out and running around like chickens with the heads cut off.

Belle chuckled. "We'll find out soon," she said, leading the way back into town. "Well, hopefully, anyway."

"What do you mean, hopefully?"

"I'm not sure how well these things work at all, let alone with being transported places. We'll have to see how long it takes them to find us or if we get back to our hotel first."

The instant the words left Belle's mouth, Nyx appeared in front of her and pulled her into a tight hug before checking to make sure she was okay. Belle said nothing; Nyx looked too pissed to tease at that moment. Sera merely smiled and waited.

"Um, Sera, you might want to head back on your own," Belle warned as Nyx nuzzled her neck.

"Why…?" Sera blinked as she watched for a moment, then flushed red. "Oh. Right. I'll see you back there in a few, then." She set off, not looking back at the two. They'd be fine. Apparently Nyx figured that the middle of the woods was privacy enough.

Sera made it back into town without incident, though the moment she was in the gates she was mobbed by Kenshin, Kurama, and Harry. All three started berating her rapidly while checking to make sure she wasn't hurt and taking turns giving her hugs. Kenshin planted himself next to her and wouldn't be moved. Sighing, Sera merely smiled as she listened to them and started back to the hotel. Mouse came up to her and wagged at her, making her laugh quietly. Mouse was definitely too intelligent to be a normal dog.

By the time they made it back to the hotel, everyone was congregated there and demanding to know what had happened. Belle hadn't yet shown up, but no one asked since Nyx was gone too. Sera was very glad she didn't have to explain that.

Unfortunately, though, it left her in charge to tell everyone what had happened. Sitting down and waiting for them to all quiet down, she told them what had happened. Everyone sat in silence for a few moments after she'd done, until Kenshin and Kurama both checked her over again and a third time to make sure she wasn't injured otherwise.

"So what now?" Anna asked, looking at the others. "Do we stay here for another week?"

"We can wander around as long as we stay close enough to come back," Sera said. "I don't know if he's lying or not and I don't want to risk it if he isn't."

Eclipse and some others nodded their agreement. "It may be best to wander in this area for now, until we learn the truth of this."

Satisfied, Kenshin and Kurama sat down again. Silence reigned again for a few moments.

Anna stood first. "Well, if we're going traveling, we'll need supplies," she said, being practical for once. "Shadow and I can run the business for a little while and Sera and Belle, if she ever gets back, can go get anything we'll need. We'll stay here for tonight and leave tomorrow morning. Sound good?"

"Sure," Shadow said, standing. "Come on, let's get going. The crowds are waiting." With a grin and a wave, she sauntered out of the room.

"It's a good thing she's not at all dramatic, isn't it?" Sera remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Anna snorted. "Yea, really. Have fun. See you tonight." With a quick hug, she left.

Sera sighed and stood. "Right. I'm going to go get groceries. Who's coming with?" As expected, all of hers immediately went over to her, but, to her surprise, Thomas volunteered as well. She raised her eyebrows slightly but nodded and headed for the door.

"Oh, Sera."

The younger trainer paused at the sound of Eclipse's voice and half-turned to look at him.

"Don't take too long. You have to be back here to tease Belle when she returns." A playful light glinted in the demon's eyes, quickly matched in Sera's.

"Of course. See ya later." Still grinning, Sera left.

~*~

An hour later found Sera calmly putting away groceries in the pantry PD capsule and Belle trying to ignore the incessant teasing from her bishis and covering the new bite mark on her neck at the same time. Nyx simply sat next to her, looking supremely smug and proud of himself.

"Why can't you two ever do that around me?" Thomas grumbled. "At least then I can sort of get fed…"

"No," Nyx said before Belle could say anything. "Find your own toys, White Court. She's mine."

"I know," Thomas said with a sigh. Suddenly he brightened. "I don't suppose I could—"

"No. I don't know what you're about to suggest, but no," Nyx said flatly.

"No one else will, though," Thomas whined. "Do you know how hard it is to find someone nowadays without having to pull them in?"

"Nope. I don't care, either," Nyx said, leaning back and sliding his arm around Belle so he could pull her down to lay across him.

Thomas frowned, confused. "Wait… If you didn't get her, then how did you two get together?" He pointed at his trainer and the halfling, obviously confused.

Nyx snorted. "I was forced into it, sort of," he said, holding Belle closer so they could cuddle. "She found me after she'd been here for a little while."

"Two months or so," Belle interjected. "It was after I'd met up with Eclipse and had gotten a little better."

"Whatever," Nyx said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, she found me and followed me around until I agreed to travel with her. Then she started squirming her way into my life and tried protecting me even though I didn't need it." He kissed the top of Belle's head, his arms tightening around her briefly. "She made herself dear to me. I had nothing to do with it. It's all her fault."

Belle rolled her eyes and slapped his arm lightly, playfully. "Hey, if you weren't willing you wouldn't be here."

Nyx chuckled. "I know, love. At first I didn't like it, but she grew on me. Literally." He grinned as he nodded to the way she was sprawled on him.

Thomas snorted. "Lucky you," he muttered. "At least getting glomped is close enough for me."

"I do pity you that," Nyx said with a wicked grin. "You need to find yourself a girl, mate."

Thomas laughed. "Not if I want to keep intact I don't."

Nyx rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure. Enjoy your harem, then."

Belle and Sera both spluttered. "WHAT?!"

"He doesn't mean it literally!" Thomas quickly said, backing up at the glares of the girls. "I wouldn't do that! You know what he meant!"

Nyx and Eclipse both snickered as Thomas attempted to scramble out of the pit Nyx had dumped him in. They exchanged smug smirks and went back to their charges; Nyx to Belle and Eclipse to little Raenef. Unfortunately for everyone else, Raenef was just starting to discover magic. So far he'd made a fireball named Da and a little ball of dark magic named Si. Luckily for everyone else, Eclipse was keeping very close track of his son and had averted minor disasters thrice already.

"Right. Let's look at a map and study our options," Belle said, getting up and making Nyx groan when Raenef moved over to them. "That way we can figure out where we're going as soon as the other two get back."

Sera nodded and pulled out her bishidex. "Alright, let's see here… West is His Dark Materials, which I have no clue what that is. East is some Greek thing, the Percy Jackson series. South is just forest, it looks like. And north…" She stopped and stared. "We're going north."

"What? Why?" Belle moved over to her to look at the screen upside-down and stopped. She stared. A slow grin spread across her face. "Yes. We are."

"Why?" Nyx stood and stretched lazily, watching the two with apprehension.

"Ever heard of Dark-Hunters?" Belle asked, looking at Nyx.

"No."

"They're similar to vamps," Sera explained, her grin matching her sister's. "Only they protect humans from Daimons, creatures that are cursed and have to devour souls to stay alive. The Dark-Hunters are very powerful, hard to kill, and usually dark and vengeful and sexy."

"That's where we're going." Belle grinned.

Nyx groaned as the two started comparing different bishis they could get and squealing over them, though very quietly. This was going to be interesting, to say the least.

By the time Anna and Shadow got back, Sera and Belle had both decided they were going north and which bishis they wanted. As soon as they informed Anna, she said, "I want a Zarek!" Shadow laughed and shook her head.

Most of the bishis decided to retreat as the trainers started squeeing and comparing and claiming. The only ones brave enough to stay out were Harry (who didn't care anyway), Thomas (who was munching on chips and watching in amusement), Kenshin (who still hadn't left Sera's side), and Eclipse (who was highly amused and knew he'd have to deal with it sooner or later, and would rather get it over with sooner). Nyx was forced to listen as well, though he put a pillow over his head.

By the time Sera and the others went to bed, they were all eager for the next day to dawn. After all, what better to distract yourself with than trying to catch sexy bishis?


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: Again, I own nothing. Hooray.

LH: Oh I love those books. I've read every single one to date. I think Acheron is my favorite book and character. Although Savitar is pretty freaking hilarious.

PLO: Oh you should definitely read at least a few of the Dark-Hunter series. They're by Sherrilyn Kenyon, and the first book is Fantasy Lover. Anyway, they're doing a good job so far of keeping themselves happy, but it won't last for long. *evil cackle*

~*~

The next day Belle and Sera checked out while Kate roused everyone else. The half-fae was good at that. Then again, fae did love attention and Kate was _very_ good at getting attention. Which is why everyone else trooped downstairs not more than twenty minutes later.

The four trainers, the two halflings, and a few assorted bishis stayed out as they started their journey. The puppy, who still had no name and who Thomas and Harry had been taking care of mostly, was curled up in Belle's arms, happily wagging at anything that got within range.

"You know, you really should name that puppy," Harry said as he walked next to Sera, Mouse between the two. "With her being a Temple dog and all that."

Belle looked down at the bundle of gray and black fur. "I have no clue what to name her."

"Nightmare?" Thomas suggested helpfully.

"No!" Belle looked rather indignant. "Not Nightmare. Think of something else."

"Fang?" Nyx suggested.

"No. Keep trying." Belle sighed.

Eclipse merely snickered and continued walking with Raenef, taking much smaller strides so the little chibi could keep up. "This is going to be interesting," he murmured to Kenshin, who happened to be close by.

"Indeed it is," the red-headed bishi answered with an amused smile. "But it keeps them happy, that it does."

Eclipse hummed his agreement, glancing over at his trainer, who was rejecting yet another name from the two incubi. Harry sighed and went to go help Belle reject names, leaving Mouse to walk with Sera. The youngest trainer in the group was highly amused by all of this.

"So who do you think is going to get hit first?" Kate asked the other two trainers.

"Nyx," Anna said immediately.

"Thomas," Shadow replied.

Kate laughed. "How about we take a bet?" she asked with a vicious grin. "Or rather, you two do, and I mediate. Shad gets five if Thomas gets hit first, Anna gets five if Nyx gets hit first. Deal?"

The other two trainers agreed before going back to watching the proceedings with interest. Especially since Nyx and Thomas were both still coming up with silly, overused names. Nyx had even gone so far as to suggest Rover, quickly saying he was joking when Belle glared at him.

"Patronus?" Nyx suggested.

"I like it, but it reminds me too much of Harry Potter," Belle said. "So no."

"How about Sylvana?" Sera piped up from the back.

Belle paused and turned to look at Sera. "Sylvana…" She looked down at the puppy, who licked her nose. "I guess she likes it. Sylvana it is."

Sera grinned and patted Mouse on the head. He snorted gently at the puppy and padded over to Harry.

"I still think we should have named her Hctib Elttil," Thomas muttered to Nyx. The other incubus snickered.

Belle set Sylvana on the ground gently before she smacked both males. "We are not naming my dog 'little bitch' backwards!"

The other three trainers and other bishis burst out laughing, their laughter a little dampened by the woods around them. A few birds took off from nearby trees, squawking protest.

They stopped for lunch on the road, looking around rather hopefully for any sign of a bishi. So far, absolutely nothing.

"Then again," Sera reasoned as Shadow pointed this out two hours later, "all the Dark-Hunters are nocturnal and can't come out in sunlight, kinda like the vamps."

"Most of them," Anna interjected.

"Exactly." Sera grinned.

"If we see one during the daytime and he or she is, or used to be, a Dark-Hunter, that bishi has reached Sama stage," Belle said, reading and summarizing from the bishidex. "In chibi and san stages, the Dark-Hunters, Daimons, and Apollites have to stay in the darkness. However, once any of them reaches Sama stage, the effect is that they have regained their soul but they mostly keep their powers. Acheron is the only one different, and that's because he's Acheron."

"Oh fun," Anna said with a grin. "This is going to be very interesting…"

"You can say that again," Sera muttered, glancing around. "I'm not sure I like this. It's too quiet."

"That's because it's the middle of the day."

"No, seriously. There should be birds and animals and things around here. I can't hear a thing." Sera frowned.

Belle shrugged. "I haven't heard anything all afternoon. Maybe the things around here are just too scary for the animals to—" Squish.

Everyone looked at Belle while Nyx half-dragged her back a few steps. The path ended suddenly in marshy, swampy land. Belle wrinkled her nose and shook off her foot.

"Or it could just be that the animals are too smart to show themselves while the gators are up and about," Sera said rather nervously, watching as a pair of eyes swam towards them.

Eclipse snorted. "Oh don't worry about them."

"Yea, they'll only take an arm or a leg off," Belle said, mirroring her sister's anxious look.

"On second thought, back up a bit," Eclipse ordered after a few moments.

Anna gasped. "There must be a Talon around here!"

Sera and Belle both looked at Anna before they set off, finding dry land around the swamp. Nyx and Thomas groaned.

"Why did you have to say that, Anna?" Nyx asked with a whine. "Why?"

Anna merely grinned and set off after the other two, looking around for a Talon. The bishis followed, all of them sighing and/or grumbling and/or groaning. Shadow was the last trainer in, looking around curiously.

Belle was in the front, so she saw the house first. She paused, curious, and then froze as the door opened. Her jaw dropped as the blonde man emerged from the house, looking around with narrowed eyes. Sera's sentence trailed off as she spotted him too. Anna, on the other hand, had no such inhibition and promptly squealed when she saw the blondie. His head whipped towards them and he glared.

"Oh shit," Belle muttered.

"Backtrack!" Sera turned and dragged Anna with her as she hurried away from the pissed-off Talon.

"What's going on?" Nyx frowned as he saw them.

"Running away," Belle said as she grabbed him and Thomas. "Eclipse, find another way around, please!"

Eclipse sighed. Of course. Only his trainer could get into so much trouble. He could vaguely see the blonde bishi debating whether or not to keep chasing them. Eclipse chuckled and found them another way around.

By that night, they had left the swampland mostly behind and found a dry place to sleep. So, of course, it rained on them and they all had to get inside or else get soaked in the sudden downpour. Somehow (Belle suspected Thomas) Belle, Nyx, Thomas, Sera, Harry, Kenshin, Anna, and a few others all ended up piled together on the floor.

Of course, the next morning when one of them wanted to get up, it ended with everyone in a massive pile with lots of yelps and a few cheers from onlookers. Sera managed to extricate herself and watched the others all fight for their lives/modesty/freedom/breathing space. It really was rather amusing, Sera admitted, when she wasn't part of it.

By the time everyone was up and dressed and tempers had cooled down, everyone was more than ready to go. Sera and Anna led the way today, arm in arm as they chatted, walking along and looking for bishis.

Half way through the day, Belle heard movement in the bushes. She looked around, her eyes narrowed, pausing when she saw a flash of black hair. She stood silently and crept into the bushes, silently motioning for Nyx and Eclipse to come along. Another flash of black, this one accompanied by a hint of a shirt made her move a little faster through the forest. She stopped just in time just at the edge of a clearing, her eyes widening at the black haired half-god she saw there. She quickly threw a ball at him while he was looking away and he vanished with a startled yelp. Nyx and Eclipse came up just as the ball settled down and Belle grinned, doing a little victory dance in place. She completely ignored her bishidex and let the bishi out.

Bright blue eyes glared at her from under shoulder-length black hair. The demigod stood taller than her, and tanner as well, with a very well-fitting button-up shirt and pants. "What the hell is your problem?"

Nyx and Eclipse exchanged looks. Oh boy. Another one.

"Solin, right?" Belle grinned as she watched the demigod. "Oh this is going to be fun. My name's Belle."

"Do I look like I care what your name is?" Solin said, glaring at Belle. "I demand you release me."

"Sorry, no can do." Belle merely smiled. "Come on, Solin. We have some lunch and you can come meet everyone else."

Solin twitched. "Everyone else…?"

Eclipse smirked. "I don't pity him," he murmured to Nyx, who snickered his agreement. The two walked back with their trainer and new companion, just to make sure no one did anything stupid. After all, they didn't exactly trust the demigod yet. A demigod was just as bad as an actual god, and they're pretty bad (according to those few who have seen them, anyway).

"Everyone, this is Solin," Belle said when they got back. "Don't tackle him or anything, he's in a perpetual bad mood. These are Sera, Anna, Shadow, Kate, Nyx, and Eclipse. Everyone else you can learn later."

Solin glowered at everyone before he sat, grumbling to himself. He snatched some food and ate sullenly, his bright blue eyes almost glowing as they surveyed everyone. At least the food was good and he hadn't been tackled. Yet, anyway.

They spent longer than usual getting ready to go again, mainly since the girls kept sidetracking to go look at Solin or ask him questions, and the bishis all eyed him warily.

"I don't get this," Kenshin muttered to Harry.

"What?" Harry blinked down at him, confused.

"I don't understand why Belle wants to keep him around, that I don't. He's very unpleasant, that he is."

Harry chuckled. "They're fangirls. Fangirls are unpredictable and have minds of their owns and opinions of their own. Very little changes that. Best get used to it. Besides, it could be worse."

And, of course, with Murphy's Law in full effect (Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong), something went wrong. Shadow took a wrong step and half-fell into a covered pit. Anna and Kate quickly grabbed her and started trying to haul her up. A loud growl from somewhere to the side distracted everyone, and Shadow nearly fell back in the pit.

"Damn," Solin muttered. "You managed to tumble into Were-Hunter territory."

"Oh great," Belle mumbled sarcastically, looking around. "Just what I needed. Go talk to them."

"What?" Solin blinked, startled.

"Go talk to them. You're the only one that knows them. Go talk to them and tell them not to kill us." Belle looked around nervously.

"I'll tell them not to kill me. You can fend for yourself, wench," Solin growled.

"Watch your tone," Eclipse growled, moving over to Belle protectively. "Lest you wish to lose your tongue."

"I'd love to see you try," Solin said with a smirk.

Nyx pulled Sera and Belle close together in the middle, away from immediate danger. "Fools," he muttered. "I will see if they will leave us alone. Stay right here." He slipped off to the side. Eclipse and Solin remained glaring at each other, with Thomas, Harry, and Aoshi getting in the middle and keeping them from killing one another.

Eclipse paused in his glaring contest which Solin (which he was, of course, winning) when he heard a yelp. He waited until he saw Nyx and raised an eyebrow. Nyx merely smirked and sauntered over to Belle again.

"They'll leave us alone. Come on. We should find another way around," he said, sliding his arm around her waist and leading her away from the angry Were-Hunters.

Half an hour later found them still walking and with no bishis immediately in sight. Of course. When you wanted to find bishis they were nowhere to be found.

Sighing, Sera lagged behind the group, trying to see if there was anything to be found. So far, nothing. Harry stayed in the back with her, his hands stuck in the pockets of his giant leather duster.

"How do you wear that thing?" Sera asked. "Especially in this humidity."

Harry shrugged. "It's hot as all hell, but it has lots of protective spells on it. I'd rather be safe than cool." He grinned. "Besides, I can wear shorts under it if I really wanted to."

Sera laughed at that. "I suppose that is true." She shook her head, grinning at the mental image of Harry in shorts and a guy's tank top and the leather duster.

"I don't want to know, do I?" Harry asked warily.

"No. You don't." Sera grinned at him and kept walking. She looked around one last time and gave up on seeing a bishi.

Which, of course, is when a wolf darted out onto the path in front of her and behind the others. The wolf stared at them for a moment, apparently panicked, and turned to run off to the other side of the trail. A slightly larger wolf emerged from the bushes on the other side, with growls and snaps coming from behind him.

Sera pulled out a bishiball and threw it at the wolf before she could think about it. The wolf was sucked in and the ball rattled violently before it fell still. The other wolf stared at them for a moment before it turned tail and fled. The growling stopped and all was quiet again.

"Well, that was weird," Shadow said after a minute. "So who did you get?"

"No clue." Sera walked over to the bishiball and let the occupant out. Her bishidex started spouting information at her, all of which she ignored. Instead she looked at the tall dark-haired bishi in front of her.

"Who the hell are you and what did you just do?" he growled. Literally growled.

"I'm Sera. I caught you so that the others wouldn't rip you to shreds," Sera said with a grin. "Nice to meet you, Fury."

Fury glowered at her and looked around at the others. He shrugged a little and retreated silently in a flash of red light.

"He's foul tempered too," Sera told everyone, and they all laughed. Except Solin.

"Solin and Fury can be foul tempered together!" Kate said, earning another round of laughter from everyone.

"Nah, just give them food and they warm up to you," Belle said with a grin. "After all, the quickest metaphorical way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

"And the quickest literal way to a man's heart is through his chest," Nyx added with an evil grin.

Eclipse chuckled quietly. "Come along," he said to the trainers. "We should continue walking if we wish to find a dry place to camp for the night. Also, you may have a better chance of seeing some of the bishis of this territory if you go around after nightfall."

"Thanks, 'Clipse," Belle said with a smile. "Come on, kiddies. Let's go." She ignored the instant and loud complaints and grumbles about that last statement and started walking, Nyx following her with a slightly exasperated yet amused look.

~*~

"I want a Zarek," Anna repeated for the third time since she, Belle, and Shadow had gone out that evening. Sera had opted to stay behind and babysit, though the way she was bouncing around Belle suspected the bishis would be babysitting her.

"Don't worry. We'll find you a Zarek," Belle said, patting Anna's shoulder. "I promise."

"Really?" Anna looked up at her with big shining eyes. Metaphorically speaking, since it was so dark Belle could hardly see the trees around them and nearly ran into things every other step.

"Yes, really. We will find a Zarek for you if I have to sic Eclipse on him." Belle smiled when Anna squeed and hugged her before skipping off. Vlad pulled her away from a tree before she ran into it.

"This is so amusing," Nyx muttered to Kate, grinning.

"Why? Because they can't see a thing?" Kate asked, also grinning.

"And the number of times the three of them have almost run into things, yes. If Eclipse, Vlad, and Eric weren't looking after them I think they'd all have given up and gone back by now," Nyx said, smirking faintly.

Kate snickered. "That would be amusing," she said. "I can see them all trudging back into camp all bruised and with little cuts and looking forlorn and grumbling." She snickered again at the mental image. Nyx cackled quietly, and quietly only because Eclipse shot them both the look.

Belle nearly shrieked as Fury dropped down out of a tree in front of her, stopping in mid-step and nearly falling over had Eclipse not grabbed her. "Don't do that!"

"Why not?" Fury asked with a small smirk.

"Because… because it's not nice." Belle glared at him.

"I don't have to listen to you." Fury grinned, though it was a rather evil grin.

"Look here, pup," Eclipse growled.

"Much as I would love to cut out his tongue, he's right there, Eclipse," Nyx said. "He doesn't have to listen to Belle. He has to listen to Sera."

Eclipse grinned slowly. "True. What are you doing so far away from her, pup?"

Fury bristled. "I can go wherever I want," he growled. "I don't have to listen to that girl either."

"Well you better learn to respect 'that girl'," Belle snapped. "She's my baby sister and if you so much as think about hurting her I will personally castrate and decapitate you, wolf."

Fury actually paused, considering her for several moments. He nodded his acknowledgement once before he vanished into the trees again.

Belle sighed and continued walking, since Anna and Shadow were up ahead, unaware that anything had even happened. "Between him, Zarek, and Solin, I think I'm going to be losing my temper a lot," she muttered to Eclipse. He merely snickered and pulled her away from a rock.

"Nah, Zarek won't be so bad," Anna said with a grin. "He only kills people he doesn't like. Hopefully he'll like us."

"Meaning he'll only threaten us with death," Shadow said dryly. "Oh yea, that's a huge step up."

Anna stuck out her tongue at Shadow and continued walking, sidestepping when Vlad pulled her away from a tree.

The group walked in silence for several more minutes before a light flared briefly up ahead of them, followed by a stream of swears and curses. Anna grinned and darted off, Vlad groaning and following her. Nyx chuckled and picked up Belle before she walked into a marshy pool and headed after Anna, amused.

Anna had stopped just outside a clearing, watching a tall man with black hair following a path, though it was no more than a game trail. She looked at Vlad and motioned him forward.

Vlad nodded his consent and moved forward silently, his eyes on his opponent. Normally, in an actual fight, he wouldn't approach an enemy from behind. However, this was not a real fight. This was merely helping his trainer temporarily incapacitate another bishi. She would be very happy if she caught this Zarek, and when she was happy, Vlad was happy, even if he did grumble and complain. So he snuck up behind the Dark-Hunter, drawing a knife and holding it loosely. The Dark-Hunter froze and tensed, turning. Vlad whacked him in the back of the head with the hilt of the knife before the Zarek had a chance to attack. Anna quickly threw the bishi-ball at Zarek as he stumbled, and he was sucked into the ball with a flash of red light. It shook furiously for a minute before falling silent and still.

Vlad picked up the bishiball and returned it to Anna with a small smile just for her. "You may wish to keep him in there for a while," he said conversationally. "I doubt he is very happy at current."

Anna nodded and tackled Vlad instead, grinning like a maniac. Vlad picked her up easily and took her back to camp, the others having gone ahead.

Belle and Sera were asleep, curled up on the floor of one of the PD rooms with Nyx, Eclipse, and Kenshin standing guard. Vlad found that amusing as he took Anna back to his own room to let her bounce around for a while before she, too fell asleep. Although half of the bishis were already asleep, the other half stayed up. And the half that stayed up all heard strange noises close to dawn, noises like a hunt being set loose.


	22. Chapter 22

Another chapter, another disclaimer. I own nothing besides some of the characters.

~*~

Belle woke first among them, getting up and going outside before she started coughing. Apparently she wasn't quite well yet. Damn. Well, things never could be easy. At least this was only day three. They still had lots of time. She got the feeling they would need it.

"You alright?"

Belle half-turned to see Thomas standing near her, frowning slightly. She smiled and nodded.

"Yea, don't worry about me. I guess it's like getting over the flu. You get really sick, you get better slowly, and you still have lingering after effects." She shrugged. "Nothing I can do to change it so I'm just trying to do the best I can."

Thomas shook his head with a smile, walking over to her. "You know, not many people would do what you're doing. A lot of people would give up, or use this as an excuse to get lots of attention and complain a lot. But not you." He surveyed her, his eyes slightly narrowed. "I wonder why."

Belle shrugged. "I'm just that special." She grinned at him. "Come on, let's go make breakfast. I'll want to get everyone up and going soon anyway."

Thomas groaned playfully but followed her back inside. He grinned as little Rae ran up to Belle and hugged her leg, nearly making her fall over. Belle picked up the chibi and opened up the pantry, letting Rae fish through it and figure out what he wanted for breakfast. She paused when he wanted pancakes, trying to figure out how to cook it. She looked over at Thomas, who merely grinned and went outside again. She sighed before getting out the pancake mix, to the delighted squeal of the chibi. She was going to be flipping a lot of pancakes...

By the time most of the others dragged themselves out of bed, Thomas and Raenef were gulping down pancakes with Eclipse watching over them carefully. Sera blinked the sleep out of her eyes and went to go get her own breakfast, yawning hugely. Kenshin merely chuckled and stayed next to her.

Anna emerged with a blanket still wrapped around herself. She took her food and ate silently, obviously not very awake yet. She used Vlad as a seat, and the count sighed but let her.

By the time everyone had finished eating and the dishes were sort of put away to be washed later, Belle was practically hopping with impatience. She wanted to get going, and she let everyone know it by trying to herd them all off. Everyone managed to wake themselves enough to get ready to go and Belle led the way through the brush, obviously in a good mood. She didn't even say anything when Solin muttered disparaging comments about odd human females, though he'd eaten the breakfast she made just as readily as the others.

"Who are we still looking for?" Sera asked, catching up with her sister.

"I dunno about the rest of you, but I want an Ash." Belle's eyes lit up. "Can you imagine having one? Oh that would be so great..."

Sera laughed. "That would be great. As long as there's no Artemis around."

"Ew. No." Belle grinned. "Just Ash. Hey, I can call him T-rex!"

Sera laughed and shook her head, grinning as she saw a flash of blonde. "Hey Fury."

The taller man glowered down at her for a moment before he snorted and moved off into the forest again. Sera merely shrugged and continued on her way.

Anna joined them, hearing their discussion. "Kyrian's amusing, though he has a temper, and we have enough tempers here to start World War three."

"Oooooo, a D'Alerian would be cool," Sera said with a grin.

"Oh yea. Solin would just love that," Belle said sarcastically. "Talon's pretty cool."

"I just want his bikes," Anna said. "You can have him, I'll take his bikes." She grinned rather evilly.

"You both realize we still have one big problem," Sera said calmly. When both looked at her, she said, "We still have to find and catch them. Won't do us any good to think about it if we can't even find the bloody guys."

Belle sighed. "That is true. But at least we can have an idea of who to look for while we're wandering around here." She clambered over some rocks and continued walking, looking around. Everything was quiet but for their group. Of course, Belle reasoned, the middle of the day was not the best time to look for bishis that were, for the large part, nocturnal. The only one that they really wanted that might be an exception to that was Acheron, and he was bloody difficult to find. Go figure.

The rest of the day passed without incident, and they set up camp that night. Shadow volunteered to stay behind that night, as most of the bishis wanted to stay behind. While the ground wasn't marshy anymore, it was cold and hard and dark, with lots of trees. Besides, the fewer of them went out, the less noise they'd make. Simple logic that the bishis used in order to be lazy. Especially Lucifer.

Belle took the lead, looking for an Acheron. Nyx walked with her, while the other two fanned out to look for any bishis they might want to catch. Fury, much to Sera's surprise, had gone with her and Kenshin. He merely rolled his eyes when Sera had asked and said that she would get herself killed if she didn't have someone go with her. Kenshin had bristled but allowed it.

Anna went off with Vlad. Zarek hadn't wanted to go, merely isolating himself in his room. Anna had expected that, so she didn't mind so much. Vlad, on the other hand, kept muttering about rudeness and such things. Anna didn't bother to hush him, knowing he had better hearing than she did and would shut up if he heard anything. So she just kept walking.

All three trainers returned well after midnight, all disappointed. Nyx pointed out that they could search more the next day, and all three cheered up enough to go bed in good moods.

Naturally, since they'd all been out late, everyone slept in. Sera woke up first, before even her bishis, which was surprising. She stretched and went to go get herself some breakfast, opting for cereal. She ate her cereal slowly, sitting outside and watching the sun filter through the trees in weak, greenish rays.

When no one else was up by the time she'd finished her breakfast, Sera was getting worried. She checked her watch and found it to be still before noon. Considering how late they'd all been out the night before, it didn't surprise her that people were still asleep. But then what was she doing up?

Frowning, Sera walked around the little clearing, not wanting to wander off without any of the others awake yet. Soon she was pacing and half-wishing she had a book.

By half past noon, she was very impatient. She went back inside to go wake someone up and found that hers were already awake and looking a little panicked. Eclipse was with them, and had been speaking softly when she opened the door. All noise stopped when she did.

"What'd I miss?"

"Nothing," Eclipse said smoothly. "Apparently they didn't look outside."

Kurama gave Eclipse a menacing glare. "Like I told you, I couldn't get the door to open," he said, clearly unhappy.

Eclipse merely sighed and left, going back to check on Belle. Sera looked at them in confusion.

"You were gone," Kurama said with a shrug. "You didn't leave a note or anything."

"We couldn't find you, that we couldn't," Kenshin said. "We knew you were close but the door wouldn't open."

"Really?" Sera frowned and turned to the door, opening it. "That's strange. It works for me." She moved out of the way as Kurama closed the door again. He tried to open it, and the handle would hardly even budge. "I wonder why it's doing that. That's really..."

"Freaky?" Kurama supplied, shaking his head. "I don't know, but I don't like it." Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. "Come on, Graverobber. Let's go get everyone else up. I think they've slept long enough."

Sera frowned as she sat on the bed, looking up at Kenshin. The redhead merely smiled faintly and sat next to her as her other bishis went to go wake everyone else up. Fury took a kind of suicidal pleasure in waking Solin especially. The demigod yelled angrily as he was woken and threw a godbolt at the blonde, who quickly dodged away, laughing. Solin snarled at him and rolled over, his blue eyes glacial.

By the time everyone else was up and not trying to kill each other, Sera and Kurama had made lunch. Belle, unused to not cooking, scowled lightly at her sister and insisted on helping with the dishes.

"Are we ever going to get out today?" Anna asked rather loudly.

"I was ready to go three hours ago," Sera replied, her eyes flashing. "Everyone else wanted to sleep. So we'll go when we're damn well and ready to go."

Anna wisely shut up and went to go bug Vlad and Zarek, leaving the pissed off auburn haired trainer alone.

"What's wrong?" Belle asked, standing next to Sera and helping her do the dishes.

"I don't know what you mean." Sera handed her a dish, which Belle dried off and put off to the side to be put away.

"Like hell you don't. Spill."

Sera sighed in aggravation. "I just don't like being stuck with nothing to do while everyone else is asleep." She lowered her voice slightly. "And nightmares. I hate nightmares. They always come when I don't want them."

Belle nodded her understanding. "Well, maybe if you wake up early next time you'll just grab a book and read. I know you can do that for hours on end. Nightmares we can't do much about. Not without an Oneroi, a dream god. And no, Solin doesn't count. He's only half, he can't do jack shit about it. I already asked."

Sera sighed but nodded. "I guess so." She finished washing the dishes and looked over at Belle. "So what now?"

"Go get your boots on. We're heading out."

Despite all of them being willing to go adventuring, and all of them wanting to find bishis, the only one who found a bishi was Shadow. She ran off with Hiei trailing her, and came back announcing that she'd caught a Julian. The other demigod looked only slightly put out, though he raised his eyebrows when he looked at the group of them, brushing his blonde hair out of his eyes. All four trainers and Kate spent a good few minutes just staring before they decided to set up camp. It was close to nightfall anyway.

As soon as all the PD rooms were set up, the girls decided not to go out that night. Instead, they set up a few different movies and watched them (although they were all careful to keep Harry a safe distance away from the electronics). Julian decided to watch Troy, just for fun, and all four trainers and Kate stayed in that room with him, all of them sneaking glances at him. Not their fault he was the son of the goddess of love, Belle figured. Didn't mean the other bishis were any happier about it. Nyx especially was not happy, scowling. As soon as Belle and Sera got up to make dinner, he dragged Belle off to Eclipse's room, since Eclipse was in Raenef's room with the chibi, working on the chibi's magic. Belle didn't protest.

Letting out a short, aggravated sigh, Sera rounded up Kurama to help her with dinner instead and spent the next half hour cooking. After all, you had to cook a lot of food for so many people. She idly wondered what the grocery bills must be like and shivered at the very thought. Maybe she didn't want to know after all.

After that was the usual pandemonium, while everyone tried to get their food at the same time. Sera, being the cook, had gotten first dibs, and so had gotten food for herself and Belle, which she took back to Eclipse's room. Luckily for her, Nyx had done nothing but keep Belle in the room, his arms around her.

"Thanks," Belle said with a smile. "Nyx won't let me up."

Sera laughed quietly. "It's really not our fault," she said to the halfling as she sat on the floor to eat. "Julian's the son of Aphrodite. Of course women are going to stare at him. It's really not our fault."

Nyx merely snorted in disbelief and held Belle tighter, like a teddy bear. Sera rolled her eyes and ate in silence.

"You know, there is one big downside to this," Belle said after they'd both finished eating.

"What?"

"Since we slept in so late today and didn't go out tonight, everyone's going to be up really late tonight and they're all going to want to sleep in again tomorrow." Belle grimaced. "I'm not even tired yet, and I know that I should go to bed soon."

"I could always make you tired..." Nyx purred.

Sera shook her head. "Not while I'm in the room," she said, picking up the plates. "I don't want to hear anything."

"Better leave then," Nyx said, shooting her a look. "I'm not going to wait for you just because you're her sister."

Sera left in a flash, leaving Belle laughing quietly and Nyx smirking. Sera went to go do dishes instead, to give herself something to do. In contrast to her slowly drooping energy levels, everyone else seemed hyper in comparison, especially Anna and Shadow. The two were talking rapidly and practically bouncing in their seats, each of them braiding the hair of their bishis one at a time. Eric walked away with several small braids, while Al walked away with two pigtails. All the other bishis thought it hilarious, until Sera offered to do the same to them. They all quieted rapidly.

Julian turned out to be very handy with keeping people in line. He helped keep everyone quiet-ish, at least so the noise level was a dull roar instead of the inside of a club, and he kept an eye on the trainers to make sure they didn't get into trouble, his own especially.

Finally Sera got fed up with the noise and turned to Kurama. The demon grinned rather evilly and vanished into another room. He returned nearly ten minutes later with a pitcher and cups. Handing out the cups and filling them, Kurama grinned and watched as people started to fall over asleep one by one. Julian was smart and avoided anything Kurama handed out, instead going to go find a nice place to read for a while. Kurama nearly cackled as he stood over the bodies of sleeping bishis and trainers on the floor. Sera merely rolled her eyes and slipped out the door before Kurama tried to drug her too.

Naturally, because everyone was put to sleep earlier than they had intended, everyone woke up earlier. There were some disgruntled complaints and mutters, but people actually got up and got ready to go, which amazed Sera and Belle. Normally they had to force everyone else to get up.

"Maybe I should have Kurama drug them more often," Sera muttered, looking around as people packed up. Most of the bishis opted to go back to bed, or at least to their rooms to entertain themselves, but the normal batch stayed out, including Solin, Fury, and Julian. Solin was out so he could complain to someone. At least that's what Belle suspected, since she heard him complaining frequently. But, then again, he was that type of person.

Midday came and passed, and lunch along with it. No bishis had been spotted yet, but Belle wasn't put off. She kept looking, and her efforts were rewarded when Solin suddenly shut up and snapped to attention, looking off to the side. Belle followed his gaze and snuck over towards the source of the rustling in the bushes, a hand on an empty bishiball. She pushed past the bushes slowly, took a step forward, and fell. The ground had vanished from under her, and she fell on something hard and warm with an 'oof!'

The thing she landed on groaned, and Nyx jumped down to join them. Belle looked down and found a pair of silver eyes glaring at her from under tousled black hair. The man stood, towering over both of them, and jumped out of the pit. Belle gaped at him for a moment before she looked at Nyx.

"That's Ash! Go! Get him!"

Nyx raised his eyebrows before he jumped out and followed Ash, tackling him to the ground. The two started wrestling and exchanging blows, Acheron pulling out a srad (a circular dagger used by ancient Celts) and tried to attack Nyx.

Belle managed to scramble out of the pit with some help from Solin and tried to move closer. Solin dragged her back.

"Are you nuts?!"

"Quite probably," Belle said calmly, pulling a ball off her belt and readying it. "But dammit I've always wanted an Acheron."

Nyx punched the taller black-haired man before moving away, giving Belle a chance to throw the ball at the injured bishi. The ball rattled furiously for several moments before calming and settling.

Belle stared at the ball for several moments, not reacting to her bishidex beeping and informing her that the Acheron she'd caught was a San stage and did she wish to give him a nickname? "T-Rex," she said, sounding rather dazed still.

Nyx scooped up the ball and handed it to Belle. "You might want to let him out and give him a potion, love," he said, sounding a little strained.

"Here, you take one too," Belle said, looking over him worriedly. He was bleeding from a few scratches, and he had a bruise blooming on his cheekbone. "Thank you." She smiled sunnily at him as she got out the capsule and got two potions, handing one to him. She opened the bishiball and let Acheron out.

The bishi looked down at her, his eyes swirling silver and unreadable. "So. You're my trainer." He did not sound happy.

"Yes. I'm Belle." She grinned and held out her hand to him. "Sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances but I doubt you'd have come with us willingly."

Ash's lips twitched in a small smile. "Indeed not. Although I would ask something of you."

"What?" Belle looked way up at him curiously.

"Don't call me T-Rex."

Belle started laughing at the long suffering look on his face.

~*~

Sera sighed as she continued walking, Kenshin walking next to her. Fury was somewhere up ahead, scouting for them. She continued trudging along. Belle had gone off on her own an hour ago, and the other two had decided to meet up later at the same clearing they'd used the night before. Sera hadn't heard from any of them since, nor had she seen hide nor hair of any bishi.

"Don't worry, Sera-dono," Kenshin said with a smile. "We'll find someone for you eventually, that we will."

"Thanks." Sera smiled at him and continued walking. She jumped when Fury stepped out of the trees in front of them.

"Nothing up that way," he reported dutifully. "Just a lot of trees and a few pissed off Arcadians."

Sera eyed him warily. "Fury, what did you do?"

Fury grinned. "Oh, just popped in on them," he said airily. "We might want to move away, though."

Sera sighed and shook her head, turning and heading off in another direction. Couldn't life ever be simple? No, of course not... Oh well. At least it was amusing.

They walked for another hour before Fury saw anything. He slipped ahead of them, moving silently through the brush. Sera hesitated before she followed him.

Up ahead of her, the Were-Hunter swore violently and retreated, nearly running into Sera. He grabbed her arm and hauled her back, away from the area, and didn't stop until he'd put quite a bit of distance between them.

"What the hell was that?" Sera asked, looking at the blonde in front of her. Kenshin stood next to and slightly behind her, also curious.

"One seriously pissed off god," Fury said. "I barely avoided being fried."

Sera's eyes got really wide. "Which god? Did you see? Can I go see? What'd he look like?"

"Shut up and calm down, whelp," Fury snapped. "That was Ares. So no, you do not want to go see. He has no qualms with frying humans. And godbolts hurt. Especially since you can't heal."

"Oh." Sera sighed, deflating. Until she perked back up again. "Well I can go see a god that's not in a bad mood, right?"

Fury groaned and started walking back towards the prearranged meeting place. "Sure, kid. You go do that. But don't come crying to me when you get zapped into a black spot on the ground." He continued walking, grumbling about stupid humans having no sense at all. Sera exchanged looks with Kenshin before she ran after him.

Sera was the last to get back to camp. Everyone else had given up or, in Belle's case, gone back extremely happy. Acheron was warming up to everyone, as much as the cryptic Atlantean god did, and was allowing Belle to ooo and aaaaah over his dragon tattoo, which was currently climbing up his arm to his shoulder. Sera stopped and stared at the Atlantean.

"Oh. My. God. Belle, did you...?"

"Yes. With help from Nyx." Belle looked at Nyx with a huge beaming grin, and Nyx couldn't help but chuckle.

Sera stared at the black-haired bishi with huge wide eyes. Then she cautiously ventured over and poked him. His eyebrow twitched and Belle nearly fell over laughing.

"You'll have to excuse her, she's less calm than I am," Belle said, grinning. "Ash, this is my little sister, Sera."

Ash's eyes swirled before he pulled over a backpack and retrieved a pair of sunglasses from it, putting them on. "I know." His eyebrow twitched again. "And Nyx, you are going to annoy me if you keep thinking like that."

Nyx laughed. "I would say sorry, but I'm not. Besides, I had to test and see if it was true." He smirked and kissed Belle's cheek before he went off to go find blood.

Belle sat down on the ground, poking at the fire with a stick to get it going again. "We'll have to see about dinner soon, before Anna complains any louder." She grinned.

Raenef wandered over and looked waaaaaay up at Acheron. "You new." It wasn't a question.

Acheron smiled faintly and squatted in front of Raenef. "Yes, I am."

"You staying with us?" Raenef still had to look up at Acheron, but not as far up.

"Am I allowed to?" Ash asked the chibi, his voice serious though his lips twitched.

"I dunno." Raenef looked him over. "You're tall."

"So are several people here." Now Ash just sounded amused.

"Not as tall as you. You're big." Rae looked over at Belle. "Mommy, why is he so tall?"

"Because he ate all his vegetables when he was little," Belle said with a grin. "And he's naturally that tall."

"Oh." Rae looked between Belle and Ash. "Can you cook?"

"If the occasion calls for it," Ash answered cautiously.

"You make pancakes?"

"Yes." Now Ash just sounded confused.

Rae beamed. "You can stay." He ran over to Belle and latched onto her leg. "Mommy, I want pancakes!"

Belle laughed and picked him up. "It's dinner time, sweetie. You can have pancakes in the morning."

Rae pouted, turning the full force of chibi eyes and adorableness on her. "But..."

Ash stood. "I'll make pancakes for you, squirt," he said with a rare smile. Rae cheered. Belle left the chibi with the Atlantean and rounded up Sera, who was biting her knuckles in order not to squee at it all, and went to go make dinner for the rest of them.


	23. Chapter 23

I know, it's been forever since I updated. But I'm finally updating! Hooray! I'm so sorry I haven't been updating people! I promise I'll try to do it more often!

LDD: OMG YAY! Another review! I love reviews! I'm glad you like everything so far; I'll keep trying to move the plot along but I thought this chapter was a good and necessary transition. Now we'll be getting more back onto the real plotline… MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

PLO: Raenef is too much fun to write. I find myself squeezing when I go back and reread what I've written! Anyway, though this chapter isn't as much plot, I hope you enjoy it all the same!

LH: Thankies! Acheron is just so much fun to write! And so is D'Alerian. I think he deserves his own book, cause he is awesome and amazing and underappreciated.

As usual, I own nothing but the trainers. Blah blah blah. You get the drill by now.

~*~

"One week," Sera said two days later in the early afternoon when everyone was up and they were traveling.

"Hm?" Acheron looked over at her, raising his eyebrows.

"It's been a week," Sera said, looking down at the ground and scuffing her foot against the dirt.

"Since…?" Acheron prodded, frowning behind his dark glasses.

"Nothing important," Belle interrupted, carrying Sylvana the puppy again. "I'll tell you about it later, Ash. Don't worry."

Acheron looked between the two sisters for a moment before he shrugged and continued walking. Sera lagged a little behind him, Kenshin walking with her. Fury paused beside her for a moment before he continued off into the woods, and Anna was being carried by Vlad while Shadow was walking with Julian. Kate led the group, with Belle and Nyx a little ways behind her.

"And two days since we've seen any bishis," Anna added, resting her head on Vlad's shoulder.

"No, we passed a group of panthers earlier," Acheron said with a slight smile. "However, they were having a dispute and I thought it best to avoid them."

"Good call, Ash," Belle said. "I don't suppose you'll let us know ahead of time."

Acheron's lips twitched. "Maybe. Maybe not." He adjusted his sunglasses, stuck his hands in his pockets, and continued walking.

Sera rolled her eyes at him and paused when she got an idea. "Hey, any idea where we're gonna make camp tonight?"

"None whatsoever," Belle said.

"Okay. Maybe we should just pick a spot and go look around separately," Sera said with a shrug. "I mean, a group this big attracts attention. So if we split up we might have more luck."

"Good inference," Acheron said, his lips twisting into a small grin. "She's right. You'd have more luck looking around separately. There's a clearing not far ahead that will be suitable."

"How do you know?" Shadow asked.

"I've been here before," Acheron said. "There. Right up there."

The group spread out once they found the clearing, and Shadow volunteered to stay behind, as did Kate.

"Alright, I'm going that way," Belle said, pointing a little off to the side. "See ya in a while."

"Wait!" Shadow looked over at her suddenly, panicked. "What about dinner?!"

"You've still got people here. I'm sure Julian can cook." Acheron smirked at the blonde half-god and half-pulled his trainer away.

"Anna?" Shadow asked.

"I don't cook," Anna said. "Off we go to Neverland!" She grinned and headed off with Vlad.

"Sera?" Shadow turned to the youngster.

"Unavailable," Fury said, grabbing Sera's arm. "Enjoy yourselves." He grinned ferally and pulled Sera off.

Sera frowned a little as she, Kenshin, and Fury moved into the woods. The sunlight was blocked out more, making everything darker. Fury moved ahead of them easily, occasionally glancing back to make sure his trainer was following. At one point, he leapt over a fallen tree easily. He looked back and saw Sera scrambling to get over it, Kenshin moving forward from his rear guard position to help her. Fury grabbed her hand and hauled her over easily.

"Thanks," Sera said, turning red. Fury snorted but graced her with a little grin before he continued walking.

"I think he likes you, that he does," Kenshin murmured, sounding pleased.

"I don't know about that yet. But he's accepted me as his pack." Sera smiled and continued walking.

"He thinks very much like a wolf," Kenshin said softly.

"That's because he is one," Sera said with a smile. "He just hasn't graced us with his wolf form yet."

"Graced us with? You want to see him as a wolf?" Kenshin asked, clearly questioning her sanity.

"Yes, I would. I've always loved animals. Besides, when he turns into a wolf, he's still highly intelligent. He's just furrier." Sera grinned and carefully stepped over a fallen branch.

Kenshin smiled faintly and shook his head, falling back a few steps. He could barely see Fury ahead of them, and then darkness fell over all of them. He blinked a few times, his vision adjusting, and he saw Sera leaning against a tree, stiff.

"Sera?" Kenshin whispered, moving over to her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Sera muttered. "I think I stepped on something. I can't see."

Kenshin frowned and crouched next to her, checking her over. She looked fine, so he stood up, and then froze.

A white wolf stood in front of them, his eyes glowing faintly. He walked over to Sera, who stood transfixed, and pushed at her with his head. Sera blinked before she grinned and rubbed his head. Fury snorted and turned, walking off along the path. The three walked in silence for several minutes before Fury paused and crept off the path, staying close to the ground. Kenshin followed him, Sera behind both of them. Fury stopped before he turned and took Sera's hand carefully in his jaws, leading her forward. He tugged her down to crouch behind a bush and nudged a little opening for her to see through.

A man crouched by a pool, black hair falling over his features. He looked up briefly, and Sera's jaw fell open as bright, insanely blue eyes met hers for a brief moment before he looked away again. Sera swallowed after a moment as the man tied his hair back, leaving wet streaks in his hair, and she identified him as D'Alerian.

She looked at Fury and whispered in his ear, "What do you think of him as a companion?"

Fury looked at her and shrugged a little, as much as a wolf can. Then he cocked his head to the side, his ears up, a question in his eyes.

"I dunno what you're asking, but if you could go distract him for a minute, long enough for me to catch him, I'd appreciate it," Sera whispered. "Or go fight him, either way."

Fury blinked at her once before he dipped his head once, pushed his nose against her neck, and vanished into the bushes.

Sera grinned and watched as Fury moved into the clearing, approaching the pool of water. Fury growled a little at D'Alerian.

"Easy, wolf," the black-haired god murmured.

Fury snorted and crouched next to the water, watching D'Alerian warily. D'Alerian raised his eyebrows at Fury and took a step aside, closer to Sera. Fury growled a little, his hackles raising, and D'Alerian took another step back.

Sera stood swiftly and threw a bishiball at the god. D'Alerian barely had time to turn before he was sucked in. The ball rattled violently for a minute before it fell still.

Fury snorted and picked up the ball in his mouth, trotting over to her and giving her the ball. Kenshin walked over to them and smiled.

"Shall we meet him?" Sera asked, excitement in her voice. Kenshin smiled and nodded, while Fury merely snorted and sat down. Sera opened the bishiball again.

D'Alerian appeared before them, his face a blank mask. He looked at the three of them before he focused on Fury. "You are with her?"

Fury snorted and nudged Sera's head with his nose. D'Alerian nodded and looked at Sera.

"Hi. I'm Sera. I guess I'm your new trainer." She beamed at him.

D'Alerian inclined his head. "I am D'Alerian," he said.

"Sorry, but excuse me for a moment," Sera said. "Sorry about this." She grinned even bigger before she jumped up and managed to hook her arms around his neck. D'Alerian looked down at her and blinked. Twice. Sera grinned innocently and let go, dropping back to the ground.

Fury growled and grabbed her hand in his jaws again, starting to tug her back to camp. Sera yelped and stumbled along behind him, cursing.

"Fury! Lemme go! Come on, I can walk on my own! Kenshin! D'Alerian! Help!!"

D'Alerian chuckled and followed them, putting his hands in his pockets. Kenshin smiled and followed after them, watching to make sure Fury didn't do anything too bad.

Fury stopped outside camp and released Sera before he went over and laid down next to the fire. The others looked over at her expectantly.

"Everyone, D'Alerian. D'Alerian, this is everyone." Sera grinned. "The important ones are Shadow, Kate, and the other two are out. You'll meet everyone else in your own good time, I'm sure."

D'Alerian nodded and paused when another pair of bright blue eyes emerged. "Sera…"

"Oh yeah. Belle has a Solin." Sera paused for a moment. "Um. That's not good, is it?"

"No," D'Alerian said, barely concealed annoyance in his voice. "So long as he keeps away, I shouldn't have a problem. Otherwise, he will feel the wrath of a full god." He glared, his eyes bright for a moment, and then he deliberately turned away from Solin.

Sera sighed and sank down next to Fury, absently running one hand through his fur. Fury looked at her for a moment, decided to let her, and rested his head on his paws.

Belle and Nyx emerged from the trees, Acheron following them. D'Alerian looked over at them, his eyebrow quirking. Acheron shrugged and went to go sit next to Sera, while Belle grinned.

"Giving you fair warning," she said to D'Alerian before she ran and tackled him. He made a strangled noise as they both fell, Belle still hanging from his neck. D'Alerian sighed, resigned, while Nyx growled, obviously not very happy.

"You might want to get off," Ash commented without moving from where Sera was nestling herself into his side.

Belle got up and grinned rather sheepishly down at D'Alerian, offering him a hand up. He took her hand and stood silently, raising both his eyebrows when Nyx walked over, growling and muttering, grabbed Belle, and steered her away.

Anna bounced into camp last, a tall black haired man with dark eyes following her and looking rater irate. She jumped on him, ignoring his protests, and started chanting "I got Valerius, I got Valerius!" Sera smiled and watched as Anna started attempting to braid his hair, making him growl and swear.

"Oi. Behave," Vlad said, flicking Valerius's head. "The more you struggle, the longer it lasts."

Valerius growled but finally fell silent, sulking while Anna played with his hair.

D'Alerian snorted as he dropped down into Fury's recently vacated spot. "I pity him," he murmured.

"I don't," Ash said, letting Sera lean against him.

"Why? Because he's Roman or because he's an asshole?" D'Alerian smirked faintly.

"A little of both, and he's done something to deserve it," Ash replied. "His hair isn't blue, so he needs to lighten up."

"Blue?" D'Alerian asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

"Yup. I knew one who dyed his hair blue. He was a lot of fun." Ash grinned.

"Well that's new," D'Alerian muttered. "Kid's gonna fall asleep there; she's too comfortable."

Ash shrugged a little, being careful not to dislodge her. "That's the point. She's still just a kid."

"True, I suppose." D'Alerian watched as Sera nestled into Ash's chest. "Apparently you are comfortable."

Ash snorted. "She thinks so."

"Want me to go put her to bed?" D'Alerian offered.

"No. Hold on." Ash frowned and examined Sera. "The others are all still wide awake. She shouldn't be falling asleep yet." Ash frowned and looked around. "Where's the red-head?"

D'Alerian rose and walked over to one of the PD rooms that had been set up and looked inside. Kenshin was asleep on the bed, with Luigi and Pavi and Graverobber all bickering next to him. D'Alerian rolled his eyes at them and retreated. "Kenshin's asleep, though how he can with those three fools is beyond me."

"Sleeping plant," Acheron said, picking a leaf out of Sera's hair. "Only effects human."

"Ah." D'Alerian eyed the leaf with distaste, and as soon as Acheron dropped it off to the side, D'Alerian zapped it with a godbolt.

"You better not be getting mice or anything," Belle said from next to Ash.

"No. Sleeping plant leaf." D'Alerian nodded to Sera. "Put her and red-head to sleep."

"Poor sweetie," Belle said, crouching down next to them. "One of you going to put her to bed?"

Ash and D'Alerian exchanged looks before Ash sighed and rose, picking up Sera. She shifted before she settled down again, and Ash walked off to go put Sera to bed.

Belle sat down and stared at D'Alerian until he shifted. "So. Dream god, huh?"

"That is correct," D'Alerian said.

"You can go through our dreams?"

"If I wanted."

"Any way for you to get rid of nightmares?" Belle's eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"Possibly. Why?" D'Alerian raised one eyebrow.

"Sera has nightmares sometimes," Belle said in an offhand way.

D'Alerian looked at her for a moment before he shrugged. "Perhaps later," he said. "Gods do not take well to captivity."

"Good thing you aren't captive then." Belle stood and brushed herself off. "If you ever really want to leave, tell Sera. She'll let you go. But give it a shot first. I think she'll grow on you." Belle walked away, back over to Nyx.

"Anything wrong?" Eclipse asked, holding Rae.

"Nope," Belle said. "Just wanted to talk to D'Alerian."

Eclipse snorted and rested his son up on his shoulders. "I hope you're hungry. Duo was making massive amounts of ramen."

"Oh joy," Belle muttered. "At least the others won't go hungry."

"You're eating too," Eclipse said. "No objections."

Belle rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. "Fine, fine. Bully." She went over to the fire to help Duo ladle ramen into bowls. She took one over to D'Alerian before retreating to eat with Eclipse and Raenef. The chibi kept life interesting for them all, as he continued trying to eat with his hands. Eclipse was endlessly patient, with the chibi at least. When Nyx started to get into an argument with Lucifer, Eclipse glared at both of them.

Laughing quietly, Belle watched as the other bishis started to return to their own rooms, and Anna and Shadow both went to bed as well.

"Come on, Belle," Eclipse said, rising with little Raenef asleep in his arms. "Time to go to bed."

"Alright," Belle agreed, getting up and heading into one of the rooms. She was a brief glimpse of Sera and Kenshin on one bed, while Thomas had fallen asleep on Sera's other side. The other two trainers were nestled with their own bishis, and Belle went into an empty room and settled on the bed, Nyx curling up behind her. Closing her eyes, Belle tried to sleep, and found herself too wide awake to sleep. Sighing, she shifted and looked over her shoulder to find Nyx already asleep. Resigned to stay there sleepless for a while, she stared up at the ceiling and let her mind wander.

_Bright lights surrounded her, swirling gently around her. Belle looked at them, curious, and reached out to touch one. A scene flashed briefly before her eyes; herself and Duo laying in the middle of a field while Eclipse watched over them. _

_Startled, she pulled her hand back, and the scene vanished. Her curiosity quickly overcame her again, and she reached out once more, this time touching a little red sphere. _

_Fire flashed before her, and someone she didn't know ran past her. Part of a building collapsed near her, and more people ran past her. Belle watched in horrified silence as people, bishis she realized after a moment, abandoned a burning building and moved to save another one. In a brief flash of clarity she saw a chibi Kenshin standing a little ways away from the others, watching._

_Belle stumbled back, away from the vision, and stepped into a bunch of the colored orbs. Various visions flashed before her eyes, and Belle tried to move away from them, frightened. For a moment she saw D'Alerian, thinking he was part of the visions, and tried to move past him. However, the god grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the orbs._

"_You have very vivid dreams," D'Alerian said, looking down at her. "Is that all real?"_

"_I-I don't know," Belle murmured. "Will I remember this when I wake up?"_

"_Do you want to?" Bright blue eyes stared down at her, impassive and almost, at least to Belle, threatening._

_Belle considered for a moment before she nodded. His lisp twitched, and abruptly humor replaced the impassiveness in his eyes._

"_Then that's up to you," D'Alerian said. "You've been asleep for long enough, I think." _

Belle blinked as she woke up, looking around. Nyx was still asleep next to her, but that was no surprise. She managed to get up and dressed, poking her head out the door to find the source of the good smell that was wafting in.

Sera was cooking, Acheron helping her, Raenef managing to get in both of their ways. Sera deftly scooped Raenef away from the pancakes, cuddling him for a few moments before she put him up on her shoulders. Raenef laughed in delight and held on to her hair and ears to stabilize himself. Acheron shook his head and flipped the pancakes while Eclipse watched over them all (though Belle suspected he was more worried about Raenef).

"Morning all," Belle said, emerging from the room and walking over to them. Raenef grinned and waved his arms at her. Belle quickly caught him before he could fall off Sera's shoulders, carrying him in her arms.

"Morning Belle!" Sera said with a grin. "I hope you don't mind but I gave Sylvana a pancake. She was hungry."

Sylvana looked up and wagged her tail, walking over to Belle. She was bigger, now about half the size of Mouse, Belle noticed with some amusement. Belle set Raenef down, and Sylvana licked his face before settling down to playing with him.

"Morning," Eclipse greeted her, moving over to give her a brief hug. "How do you feel?"

"Fine. Hungry." Belle smiled and shifted closer to him when he moved away. She rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

Eclipse blinked and looked over at the other two. Sera was too busy silently cooing over the sight, while Acheron had his eyebrows raised. Eclipse put his arms around her again after a moment and let her cuddle against his chest.

Acheron shook his head and put pancakes on a few plates. "Food."

Raenef immediately went over to get his pancakes, sitting and waiting patiently as Acheron handed him a plate. The black-haired god sat next to the chibi, eating his own pancakes. Belle joined them after a moment, sitting next to Acheron and pulling Eclipse down with her. Sera merely laughed and started cooking another batch as more hungry bishis emerged.

Kenshin helped Sera distribute the pancakes to everyone that got up before he got the last two plates and handed one to his trainer with a little smile.

At about noon everyone was ready to go again, and Belle took charge.

"Alright people, we're heading back to town."

Several groans met her statement. The bishis exchanged long-suffering looks at the complaints of the trainers.

"Well, think of it this way," Belle said. "We're still a few days into this area. We'll have time to look as we head back. Besides, we need to get more supplies and we can stay in a hotel for a few nights."

Sera grinned. "And you three can go back to making lots of money by doing nothing at all!"

Anna brightened considerably at the idea. "Hey Belle, can we use Ash once we get back to town?"

Belle looked over at her newest bishi with a grin. "What do you say, T-Rex? Want to be glomped and help me out?"

Ash's eyebrow twitched infinitesimally. "Don't call me T-Rex. And maybe. Just maybe. If you're lucky."

"And D'Alerian, too!" Anna turned to Sera, who was walking next to said god.

"Maybe we should give him a day or two to adjust," Sera said swiftly, hooking her arm through D'Alerian's in case he got pissed off. "And don't try to shove him into it, Anna. Only if he wants to."

Anna pouted but turned to Vlad, who sighed and crouched down so she could get on his back. D'Alerian blinked down at Sera but said nothing.

Belle smiled to herself and walked between Nyx and Lucifer, the latter of whom had gotten bored and decided to bug everyone else. Belle didn't really mind; after all, he wasn't really evil, or anything. He just didn't like rules.

The next two and a half days passed swiftly for them, with most of the bishis retreating once they got to the city so as to attract less attention. Eclipse carried his son through the gates, glaring at the guard when he opened his mouth to ask. The guard paled and waved them through. They managed to get three rooms again, and Sera claimed the end one for herself and Belle. Kate took the room on the other end with Shadow, and Anna took the middle room along with any bishis who wanted to stay in there.

Sera flopped on one of the beds, stretching out before melting into the bed. Belle laughed and sat next to her, setting up several PD rooms by the wall. Nyx stretched out on the other bed, getting comfortable.

"So, what are we doing for dinner?" Sera asked after a moment.

Belle laughed. "Food on your mind?"

Sera grinned suddenly. "Better than Heaven on my mind," she retorted.

Belle started laughing, falling over so she was laying on the lower half of Sera's body.

"The Hell?" Lucifer asked, looking at the two trainers.

"It's a song. Heaven on Your Mind from Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock opera written by Andrew Lloyd Webber," Sera responded, as Belle was still too busy laughing.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "Humans," he muttered.

"Well, if you're going to be like that, you can get your own dinner," Belle threatened with a teasing grin.

"That's not fair!" Lucifer said, spluttering.

"Whoever said life is fair?" Belle's grin turned decidedly evil.

Lucifer grumbled. "Fine. I take it back. But you're still weird." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Good enough." Belle shrugged and moved so she was sitting on Sera's back, taking out the younger's hair from its braid and combing through it with her fingers.

"Not going to make him beg?" Sera muttered, getting comfortable.

"Nah. That's next time." Belle grinned and tapped one of the balls still on her belt. "Come on, Duo. I need help with Sera's hair."

Duo emerged and grinned before he moved over next to Belle, working swiftly on Sera's hair. A few of the doors to the PD rooms opened, and the bishis all emerged to stretch and wait for food. Sera let hers out as well after a few moments, and they all went to amuse themselves, seeing no food imminently forthcoming.

Aoshi opened the door connecting to Anna's room and, ignoring all the others, walked straight over to Sera. "Since we're back in a town, we're going back to training. Tomorrow. Nine o'clock sharp." He turned and walked back out, ignoring the varied looks from the other bishis. Acheron and D'Alerian exchanged looks before they both sighed and shook their heads.

"There!" Duo moved away from Sera to let the others look. Her hair had been pulled back into three braids, which had then all been braided together and tied off with a white ribbon at the end.

"Where'd you get the ribbon from?" Belle blinked.

"I have my hiding places." Duo grinned, proud of himself.

Belle laughed and helped Sera up, grinning. "So, who's hungry?"

Several bishis immediately clustered around the two trainers, along with Kate, Shadow, and Anna. Eclipse growled softly and started pushing people back away from the bed to give the two girls some room.

"Everyone, basically," Sera simplified. "Come on, Belle-belle. Let's go get Chinese food for the horde. Eclipse, you're in charge of making sure they don't do anything too bad while we're gone. D'Alerian, go think of a nickname for yourself. Your name is too complicated." She hopped off the bed and grabbed Kenshin's hand, half-dragging him out of the room. Belle laughed and followed, Nyx trailing after her a little reluctantly.

Shadow and Anna exchanged looks before they both shrugged and decided to do some planning. As it turned out, they both wanted to go look for at least one more bishi in the Dark-Hunter area…

By the time the group returned with food nearly an hour later, most everyone had settled down to watch movies for the night, though a few of the others were doing other things. Solin was in Anna's room with the movie going, though he was standing leaning against a wall and glaring in at D'Alerian, who was in Sera and Belle's room with Acheron and Julian. Valerius was standing in a corner of the room, watching everyone else with mild distaste. And Algaliarept was off in Shadow and Kate's room, apparently making something and grinning evilly over it. That worried Sera a little, at least until his head snapped over to them when they opened the door.

All noise stopped for a few moments as everyone registered that they were back. With food. Then the smell of Chinese food wafted through the rooms, and all Hell broke loose as they all tried to get to the food. Acheron, D'Alerian, and Julian all played crowd control as the girls swiftly set up the food on the beds and put out plates, grabbing their own food before they moved out of the way.

Most of the bishis descended on the food like a pack of hungry hyenas, while the others cleared the way for them. Soon enough everyone was settling down to eat, and Sera and Belle sat on the windowsill with the window open, looking over at the forest. They looked at each other once before they returned to looking out the window. They both knew that tomorrow would not be good; though it hadn't quite been two weeks yet, they were going to go back and see the mad scientist again. After all, who knew what he'd do if he got pissed off?


	24. Chapter 24

Again, I own nothing but a few characters.

LDD: Yeah, I know. I kinda miss these stories too. There aren't enough of them. Sure, you can have some ideas! I have too many anyway. XD

PLO: Well, I like to have quiet chapters in between the creepy ones. You shall see more plot advancement in these next few chapters. I hope you enjoy them!

~*~

Sera rose early the next morning again, panting quietly as she sat up in bed. After a few moments she calmed and rested her head on her knees, shutting her eyes again. A gentle touch on her back made her start and look up. Bright blue eyes glowed faintly in the pre-dawn darkness of the room.

"Nightmare?" D'Alerian asked softly.

Sera nodded with a weak smile. "Yeah. It's alright. I can handle it." She got up, careful not to move or wake Kenshin, and grabbed a change of clothes. "I'm going to go for a jog after I get dressed."

D'Alerian shook his head a little. "Not alone you're not."

Sera paused in the doorway to the bathroom and turned to look at him, putting one hand on her hip. "And why not?"

"Because I must protect you. It is foolish for you to go off on your own." D'Alerian gave her a very even look.

Sera paused for a moment, considering that, before she shrugged. "Okay. Fine. I'm going to get dressed and then we'll go." She shut the bathroom door and changed, brushed out her hair, and generally got ready to go.

By the time she emerged, Kenshin was half-awake and looking around for her sleepily. Sera walked over to him, chuckling quietly.

"It's ok, Kenshin. Go back to sleep. I'll be back soon. I'm just going to get some breakfast and coffee." Sera perched on the edge of the bed, looking down at Kenshin.

"Mmhm." Kenshin yawned and cuddled farther into the bed, pulling the blanket up to cover half of his face. Sera grinned and got up carefully, stepping over and around the few bishis sleeping on the floor. She stepped out into the hallway, which was very bright after the room, and saw D'Alerian waiting for her by the elevator. She walked over to him silently and headed down the stairs, not waiting for the elevator. D'Alerian sighed softly but followed her, shaking his head slightly at her.

Belle woke not fifteen minutes after those two had left and looked around blearily. The clock on the bedside table said it was a quarter to seven in the morning, and she groaned softly and let her head fall back to her pillow. It was waaaaay to early to be awake. She shut her eyes again, trying to go back to sleep.

The door opened again, seemingly only a few moments later, and Sera and D'Alerian reentered. Belle groaned and looked up at them groggily.

"Sorry, Belle," Sera murmured. "Time to get up now." She prodded her sister gently. "Come on."

D'Alerian smirked and walked over to Acheron, who was already awake and watching the spectacle. "Think things will go flying?" he muttered.

"Maybe," Acheron said. "Belle's debating it."

D'Alerian snickered quietly and watched as Sera continued poking Belle, trying to get her sister up and moving. Nyx finally growled and swatted Sera, making her yelp. That, of course, woke up Kenshin and Thomas and Harry, who all sat up and looked around, and Acheron's eyes narrowed a little.

"I'll get her up," Eclipse said, moving over before things started to erupt. "Go take a shower." He gently propelled Sera into the bathroom, tossing her bag in after her, and shut the door. Then he looked at the bishis that were already awake. "Alright, go get everyone up," he ordered. "And don't go back to sleep. You'll regret it if you do."

Acheron snorted and rose, going off into Anna's room to see who was sleeping on the floor and to go wake those unfortunate enough to have chosen that sleeping place. Hey, he now had an excuse to be evil. After all, evil in small doses was fun.

By the time Sera emerged from her shower, her hair dripping and clad in clean clothes, everyone was up and Acheron was making pancakes. Sera shrugged and went over to sit on her bed, waiting patiently for her turn to get food.

Kenshin brought over two plates for them and the two ate in silence with Thomas sitting leaning against Sera's legs. She gathered up plates after she finished eating and started washing them, Belle helping her. Anna and Shadow and Kate all moved off into the other room to start plotting for their money making scheme, while the rest of the bishis lounged about, played card games, or talked. Belle put the dishes away after Sera dried them, Eclipse watching over Raenef and Sylvana, who played around their feet and in the small spots of clear space left over in the rooms.

Sera glanced at Belle, who nodded and slipped off to talk to Yoko. Sera turned to face the bishis, who looked at her with confusion. "Alright, you lot should know the drill this time. Fill in the newbies while we're gone." Sera turned, paused, and looked over at D'Alerian. "And you keep thinking of a nickname or I'll make one up for you." Then she marched out into the hallway, leaving several confused bishis behind.

"What, exactly, did she mean?" Acheron asked, turning to Kenshin. The red-head sighed and started explaining.

"We ready?" Sera asked Belle, securing her hairpin in her hair.

"Yup. Let's go." Belle led the way down the stairs, away from the others. Yoko sighed as he watched them go, turning and walking back inside to tell the others.

This time, the bishis handled it better. Meaning they didn't all freak out when they listened to their trainers head out of town on their own, though some of them (coughEclipsecough) were still planning evil and destructive things to do.

Shadow went into Anna's room, where Yoko had the laptop set up to track the two, and frowned. "They left again?"

"Yes," Eclipse replied. "And they refused company again."

"Damn." Shadow frowned. "Well, Anna and I are going to go set up. Anyone want to come with us?"

"I'll come by later," Thomas said, his eyes on the screen. "Take Harry so he doesn't fry the computer."

Harry growled at Thomas but left, albeit reluctantly. Shadow cast one last anxious look at the screen before she followed Harry out.

The remaining bishis and Nyx all clustered around the computer, listening.

~*~

"You know what we should do?" Sera asked, looking over at Belle. Her sister looked far too serious; Sera didn't like it one bit.

"Hm?" Belle glanced over at Sera.

"Sing the Muppets theme song." Sera grinned.

Her plan worked; Belle started laughing. "Imagine… their… faces…" she gasped out, nearly doubled over. Sera started laughing as well. She could easily see the confusion and consternation on the bishis faces if they started singing the Muppets theme.

Their laughter died slowly as they moved deeper into the forest, looking around with some unease.

"Shouldn't someone have come to pick us up by now?" Sera asked, looking around.

"Maybe you should start yelling at Minias," Belle said, only half joking.

"Hey Minias!" Sera yelled, turning slightly. "Get your damned demon ass up here!"

"No need to yell," the demon replied from behind them, making both trainers jump. "I'm right here."

Sera turned to glare at him, while Belle managed to be not quite so outwardly unpleasant.

"We're here to talk to your trainer." Belle lifted her chin a little.

"I guessed. You are early." Minias quirked an eyebrow.

"He said two weeks," Sera said, her voice sugar sweet. "Besides, I thought he'd appreciate early as opposed to late."

"Perhaps," Minias said, taking a step forward. "We shall see." He grabbed their arms and all three vanished.

~*~

"Dammit I hate it when he does that!" Nyx growled.

"Give it a moment," Yoko said, shifting so he was between Nyx and Sera's laptop.

"Sit down again and shut up," Eclipse snapped at Nyx, fire sparking in his palms.

Nyx hissed at Eclipse before he settled down in his chair again, right as the sound came back.

~*~

"Wait in here," Minias said, leaving them in the plain white room that Belle had been in before. "Be good." He smiled mockingly at Sera and shut the door.

"I hate him," Sera muttered. "I say we get Ash or D'Alerian to zap him a few times."

"Now, now," Belle said soothingly, though her own eyes sparked with anger. "Never make someone else do what you can do yourself. Get a taser. That'll work just as well."

Sera grinned and sat on the bed next to Belle. "And you can kick Marik."

"Preferably below the belt." Belle's smile was amused and somewhat anticipatory.

"I like this plan," Sera said. "You can even borrow my taser and zap Marik."

"Nah. He'd probably enjoy it." Belle shivered at the thought.

The door opened and they both looked over at the doorway. Minias entered silently and grabbed Sera's arm, hauling her to her feet. He ignored her indignant yells and dragged her out into the hallway, where he pushed her into another room and shut the door. Then he left both girls alone, smirking.

~*~

Silence fell back in the hotel room for several moments.

"That's not good," Thomas muttered.

"Why can't we go get them?" Nyx asked.

"Because we're not going to risk it," Eclipse answered. "We have no idea what he'll do, so we're not going to do anything. Not yet."

~*~

Sera paced her cage like a mad tiger, occasionally kicking the walls or the door. She knew intellectually that she couldn't get out, but she still tried anyway. She couldn't just sit there and do nothing; she knew she'd go insane if she did. So she spent her time getting rid of her anger and excess energy and waiting for someone to open the door. Then all Hell would break loose.

~*~

Belle hadn't been alone for more than 10 minutes before the door opened and the mad scientist man entered.

"I was so pleasantly surprised to hear that you'd arrived early," he said, shutting the door. "Didn't want to get in trouble, hmm?"

"You could say that," Belle said with a wry smile.

"Well, now that you're here, we may as well get it over with." He smiled quite pleasantly and took out a syringe, three small vacuutainers, a needle, a band of rubber, and a cotton ball and some tape. "You may want to hold still."

Belle froze as he tied the rubber around her upper arm, making it almost uncomfortably tight. He tapped the inside of her elbow a few times before he stuck the needle in her arm. Belle hissed and looked away as he attached the vacuutainers, drawing her blood.

"You're getting better at this," he commented idly, getting a second container secured. "Getting used to it finally?"

"You wish," Belle muttered. "I'm just waiting."

"Oh? For what?" He looked at her face, jaw set and lips pressed in a thin white line, and laughed. "For your chance to hit me, I suspect. Ah well." He secured the third container, watching it fill with her blood. He slid the needle out and neatly taped the cotton ball over the little puncture mark. "Now for your treatment." He pushed the sleeve of her shirt on her other arm up and jabbed the needle in her arm. "Oh yeah. This might make you rather woozy." He moved back and grinned.

"Bastard," Belle said, already starting to feel light-headed.

"You'll have to stay here for observation for a few minutes." Still grinning, he gathered up the vials of blood and left.

Belle glared at the door after he left before she rested her head back against the wall, waiting for the dizziness to pass.

~*~

Sera looked up when the door opened and glared at Minias, rising as if to confront him. The demon rolled his eyes at her.

"Oh shut up and sit down," he said. "Make both our lives easier."

"How about you let us out instead?" Sera said.

"Not a chance. Yet." Minias shoved her back on the bed so she was sitting and grabbed her left arm, pulling it away from her body and searching for a vein. Then he stabbed a needle in her arm, securing a container to it and starting to draw her blood.

Sera yelped and started struggling, trying not to move her left arm. She failed miserable, especially once Minias pinned her down and sat on her to keep her still. Then she finally fell still and silent, glaring at him instead.

Minias got three vials of blood calmly before he released her, getting up. He left swiftly, locking the door behind him again, and Sera glared after him, rubbing her elbow as she sat up. She looked around before she sighed and sat down for lack of anything better to do.

~*~

Belle had heard nothing for nearly half an hour, and she was pacing the cell in quick, tightly controlled steps as she waited. Every thirty seconds or so she'd glance at the door to see if it was going to open; otherwise she kept her gaze on the floor in front of her. Everything was silent but for her footsteps, and she took to counting and measuring them, falling into old routines from high school.

She just hoped that would keep her sane long enough for the mad scientist to get bored and let her out.

~*~

Sera had chosen a different way of staying sane and annoying the scientist (she hoped). She started belting out every camp song she knew at top volume. She had forgotten about the hair clip, meaning the bishis could hear her every word, but at the moment she didn't care. She paused when someone hit her door hard enough to make it rattle, and she grinned viciously before she got even louder.

~*~

Minias exchanged looks with Marik. "You get the younger one," he said, walking over to Belle's door and opening it quickly. "Alright, time to go." He grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the room and into the hallway. He glanced back and saw Marik pulling Sera, who was kicking and swearing violently, and nodded slightly before he marched the two down the hallway to see his master one last time before they left.

The scientist looked at them and smiled. "Well, ladies, it was lovely seeing you," he said with a little mocking bow to them. "We'll see you again in a month."

Sera glared at him and muttered something highly uncomplimentary before Minias grabbed the two girls and vanished with them.

~*~

"Damn him!" Yoko growled, tempted to shake the computer. "I hate that goddamn demon!"

"Hey!" Al protested, frowning.

"He said that demon, not all demons," Eclipse said absently, waiting for sound to return.

"There we go."

All attention turned to the computer as the sound and the tracking dots returned.

~*~

"One month," Minias said, releasing Belle and Sera. "Or we have to come after you, and you won't like that." He grinned and vanished again.

Sera glared after him and turned to Belle. "Come on. Let's head back," she said, wrapping her arm around Belle and walking with her back towards the city.

It only took a minute for Nyx and Eclipse to find the two. Nyx immediately picked up Belle, holding her tightly as he checked her over visually for any wounds. Eclipse glanced Sera over before he offered her his hand. Sera smiled a little, almost sadly, and took it, moving in close to the warm demon.

"Let's go," Eclipse said softly to Nyx, and both vanished.

~*~

All four trainers sat in the middle room that night, surrounded by all the bishis as they watched movies. Belle sat in Nyx's lap, Raenef cuddled against her with Eclipse sitting nearby. Acheron was laying in front of them, stretched out casually. Kate was resting back against Julian, with Kyrian sitting in front of her, letting her play with his hair. Anna was sitting on Vlad with Valerius in front of her, playing with his hair and grinning like a maniac every time the Roman protested. Sera was sitting between Kenshin and Kurama, D'Alerian stretched out in front of her rather like a large cat. Sera didn't quite dare to play with his hair or even touch him, though it was tempting.

The rest of the bishis were gathered around them or stretched out around the room, relaxing and enjoying themselves, though at least half of them stole glances at the two sisters to make sure they weren't going to collapse or anything. Not that they'd have far to collapse, but still. Even Harry stayed in the room, though he was as far away from the TV as he could possibly get.

Everyone was still settling down from dinner when the unexpected happened: Valerius got up to get something to drink at the same time Zarek emerged to get food. Everyone froze, looking at the two, before Zarek snarled and lunged at Valerius, tackling him. Valerius growled and threw him off, into a wall, pulling a dagger out of… somewhere while Zarek got up again, flexing his hands, the silver claws on his right hand flashing dangerously. Zarek lunged at the Roman again, looking intent on murder.

Several bishis immediately got in the middle of the fight. Acheron grabbed Zarek, pulling him back with some effort, while Eclipse and Lucifer pulled Valerius back. Several more bishis got into the middle to keep them from going at each other again, while the rest of the bishis moved in front of the trainers to keep them out of harms' way.

Anna quickly recalled Zarek and Valerius both, looking shaken. "Well, I wasn't expecting that," she muttered.

"Really?" Belle said dryly. "Because they seemed like such good pals in the books." She sighed and shook her head, reaching over to hug Anna quickly. "Don't worry about it. No one was actually hurt, there's minimal damage to the room, and they didn't tear into each other. I'd say we got off pretty lucky, considering."

"Yeah, I guess so." Anna frowned down at the two bishiballs in her hands and left them both off her belt. "I think it would be a good idea to not let them at each other again."

"Good idea," Sera said, shaking her head. "Man. You'd think they wouldn't hate each other so much here."

"Well, for all we know, the history is still the same," Anna said, frowning. "I mean, it's not like we can go see."

"Of course," Sera said with a sigh. "Oh well. For now I guess we'll just have to make sure they're not out at the same time so they can't kill each other."

"Might be a good idea," Shadow said, eyeing the dent in the wall where Zarek had been thrown into it. "Somehow I don't think those two will ever get along."

"Maybe," Anna said. This time she had a speculative gleam in her eyes. "Maybe I can get them to behave, though…"

"Anna. Whatever you're thinking. Don't." Vlad glared at his trainer, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Okay, okay," Anna conceded quickly. "Not right now, at least."

"Anna…" Vlad growled, glaring.

Anna merely grinned and held her hands up in surrender, attaching Zarek's ball to her belt again while keeping Valerius's in her hand. "I'm going to go talk to the Roman." She grinned and went back into the other room, setting up the PD room and going inside, shutting the door. Vlad growled and stomped after her, going in as well.

"Well," Belle said brightly after a few moments of tense silence, "That was eventful."

Sera laughed and shook her head, settling back on the floor. "So, who wants to watch Troy?"

"You better not cry," Belle warned as she got up and went to go put the movie in.

"I won't!" Sera said indignantly, huffing.

Acheron snorted as he laid down in front of his trainer again, stretching out before settling down. "Seems like you might be prone to cry as well, Belle," he teased.

Belle stuck her tongue out at him and stepped over him to settle down in Nyx's lap again. "Oh hush you giant," she muttered, starting to play with his hair again, putting little braids in it. The Atlantean merely snickered and settled down, watching the opening of the movie.

"Warning for all Greeks: This is historically inaccurate," Sera said, grinning when D'Alerian looked back and raised an eyebrow at her. "But it's still great."

The dream god snorted and settled down again, deciding to have some fun with his trainer. He stretched out and let one of his legs fall against Sera's. She'd been so careful around him to not touch him that he was starting to wonder if she was germaphobic or just scared stiff of him. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye to see her blink before she shrugged and settled down again. Not germaphobic, then. And apparently not scared stiff, either. Hmm…

Hiding a small smirk, D'Alerian moved his foot slightly and pressed it against her side. Sera jumped and let out a strangled sound that could only be described as a squeak. Smirking even wider, D'Alerian wiggled his toes against her side. Sera jumped again and tried to strangle her laughter, pushing his foot away and shooting him a dirty look. D'Alerian subsided for now, instead just staying where he was and getting comfortable to watch the movie. Apparently she was just respecting his distance. How strange. From what he'd heard of trainers, they all loved to hang off their bishis at any available opportunity. Oh well. Not really his problem anymore.

Acheron rolled his eyes at the other god's actions and glanced back at Belle. She was quite content to put multiple little braids in his hair, watching the movie as she did. He chuckled softly and stretched a little before he settled down, feeling very much like a cat. Oh well. The movie was entertaining, if wrong.

Near midnight, Sera started yawning. Kenshin was quick to get up and help her up, murmuring to her, "You need to go to bed, that you do, Sera-dono."

Sera grumbled but walked over to Belle, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "Night night Belle," she mumbled sleepily.

"G'night kidlet!" Belle kissed her forehead and smiled as she watched Sera stumble into the other room to go change and go to bed. Shaking her head a little, she focused her attention on the movie again, since they were almost done with Clue. The bishis (and Anna) had all protested to Alice in Wonderland, so she'd opted for Clue instead.

By the real end of the movie (after watching all three endings) Belle was getting tired too. She got up and walked into the bathroom, changing and brushing out her hair before she zombie her way over to her bed. She heard some of the others chuckle but she merely glared at them sleepily before she settled down in her bed, closing her eyes. A moment later she felt Nyx slip in next to her and she smiled, cuddling against him as she slowly relaxed into sleep again.

"Still think this is so bad?" Acheron asked D'Alerian softly as the rest of the bishis went off to either sleep themselves or go find quiet entertainment for the rest of the night.

"Perhaps not," D'Alerian said, looking over at his trainer, who was dead asleep and snoring softly on her bed. "But we'll see."

Acheron chuckled quietly. "Of course we will," he said, stretching out. "So what are you going to do now?"

D'Alerian shrugged. "I was just going to read for a little while," he said, looking over at the Atlantean almost warily. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason," Acheron said, a secretive smile on his lips. "Just curious."

D'Alerian raised a dubious eyebrow at the Atlantean. "Do tell, Acheron. Before I go watch your dreams and find out."

Acheron grinned. "Alright. I'll tell you." He motioned the god to accompany him outside, and they both vanished.

Eclipse opened one eye once they were gone before he sighed in tolerant amusement and closed the eye again. He shifted a little so he was more comfortable with Rae in his arms before he tried to actually go to sleep. He probably should be making sure the two weren't getting into too much trouble, but oh well. He'd do that later. Right now he was going to sleep while he could.


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a few characters. *sigh*

PLO: Well here's another update, and just about a month later. College really takes a lot out of you... I hope you enjoy this chapter as well! It's got lots of Sera and Kenshin goodiness.

~*~

In the morning, Belle woke up first and yawned, rolling out of bed and going to get changed. She blinked when she emerged five minutes later; Sera wasn't in her bed and she didn't see Acheron or D'Alerian either. Shrugging to herself, she went to go start making food.

Upon entering the kitchen, she froze, holding back her laughter. Sera was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a bunch of flour dumped over her, looking astounded. Acheron and D'Alerian both looked like they were trying not to laugh, and Solin was glaring at the young trainer.

"What the Hell happened in here?" Belle demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"We're innocent!" Acheron said quickly, pointing to himself and D'Alerian. "Innocent bystanders."

"She tripped over me!" Solin growled, still glaring at Sera.

"You were sleeping in the middle of the kitchen!"

"Because the others are all too loud." Solin's eyes narrowed.

"So why not just go back to your PD room?" Sera's eyes narrowed as well, her hands on her hips.

"I couldn't get to it because those idiotic vampires holed themselves up in there," Solin growled, his eyes glowing faintly. He looked like he'd love nothing more than to throw a god bolt at her.

"It's still your fault for sleeping in the kitchen," Sera said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Solin growled, taking a step forward, and instantly D'Alerian was behind Sera, glaring down the half-god. Solin snorted and muttered something undoubtedly uncomplimentary in Greek before he turned and stalked off.

"Solin, don't blow anything up," Belle called after him. "I mean it."

"Whatever," Solin growled, going into the other room.

Belle sighed. "Come on, Sera," she said, walking over. "Go take a shower."

Sera pouted before she walked over to the bathroom, her arms still crossed over her chest. The lock shut with a click, and the water turned on a moment later.

Smirking faintly, Belle looked at D'Alerian. "Told you so." That said, she turned and left the kitchen, going to get Sera's bag, knowing she'd want it when she got out.

Half an hour later most everyone was up (either by their own choice or after having been forcibly roused) and eating breakfast. Sera emerged from the bathroom clean, dressed, with dripping wet hair, and joined the others for breakfast. She cast evil glares at Solin every once in a while, and he completely ignored her.

"Alright, Kate, shall we go set up shop?" Shadow asked with a grin.

"Sure. You coming, Anna?" Kate grinned over at the shortest trainer.

"Hell yes." Anna grinned and looked at the various assorted bishis. "Alright, who's coming with?"

Thomas immediately went over to them, grinning and dragging Harry with him. Belle's three thieves (Yoko, Hiei, and Kuronue) all joined them, and soon half of the bishis had gone with the two trainers and half-bishi.

"What do we want to do today?" Belle asked, looking over at her sister.

"Go on a walk?" Sera suggested. "It looks like it's nice outside."

"Sure." Belle linked her arm through Sera's and headed out the door. D'Alerian, Kenshin, and Eclipse followed the two to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble.

"Hey, look at this." Sera disentangled herself to walk over to a poster in the window of a shop.

Belle moved over and suddenly grinned. "Oh boy. A big tournament coming up," she said with a grin.

"You could enter it," Sera said, looking over at her sister. "And the other two will probably want to do the same thing there."

"Of course," Belle said with a big grin. "Oh, I bet they'd love this. We should go tell them."

"We should." Sera grinned. "Right after we go tea shopping." She grabbed Belle's hand and dragged her into the shop before her sister could protest.

Kenshin sighed in amusement and followed them in, glancing back at the other two. Eclipse walked in as well, somewhat interested, and D'Alerian sighed and went in with them if only to not be bugged by people outside.

After buying a few tins of loose-leaf tea, Sera and Belle left and went to go find the other three and the bishis.

"Any idea where they might be?" Sera asked, looking around.

D'Alerian grabbed Sera's shoulders, spun her to look down a street, and pointed. "Right there."

Sera blinked, not having expected that, before she grinned and grabbed D'Alerian's hand. "Race you there, Belle!" She took off, towing the black-haired sleep god with her.

Belle shook her head and walked after her sister. "I think someone in that tea shop put too much sugar in the samples," she said dryly.

Kenshin chuckled and nodded his agreement, watching his trainer with amusement. "Indeed."

"Hurry up you slowpokes!" Sera yelled, having already reached their friends. She was still holding on to D'Alerian so he couldn't run off. A few of the trainers in line were eyeing him appreciatively.

"Hey Sera. What's up?" Shadow asked, looking over at her friend curiously. "Coming to volunteer him for service?"

"Nope," Sera said brightly. "There's a tournament being held in a week at the next town over."

"Seriously?!" Anna looked up from shoving money into Belle's jar as another girl tackled Thomas with a happy squeal. He merely grinned and let her.

"Yup. Belle's thinking of entering, and I was thinking we can go there and keep this up." She waved vaguely at the bishis.

"We would make a ton of money," Kate agreed, grinning slowly.

"Yup." Sera grinned as Belle finally joined them.

"I figured we'd leave in a day or two," Belle said, absently disentangling Sera's fingers from D'Alerian's wrist. "And no, you can't glomp him," she said to one of the trainers in line. The girl pouted but nodded. "We'll be up north by Yu-Gi-Oh! territory, so that will be interesting."

"Very," Shadow said dryly, nodding to Yami and Atemu who were both in the 'holding pen' and bickering with each other.

"I feel like today would be a good picnic day," Sera said, looking at the others hopefully.

"Bring it here and we'll eat," Shadow suggested. "And grab a few more chairs, too."

Sera grinned and nodded, grabbing Kenshin this time before bounding off to go get food, the swordsman trailing behind her.

"She got sugar and tea," Belle said dryly in explanation to the other three, who all nodded their understanding.

Sera returned not twenty minutes later to find them all gathered around the table. Eclipse was standing behind them, having refused to be glomped, while D'Alerian immediately went over to Sera when she returned.

"Your sister is evil," he said softly, so only she could hear. "She tried to put me in there with the rest of them."

Sera couldn't help but laugh a little. "Don't worry, I won't let her do that," she said with a grin. "Come eat with us."

Kenshin smiled to himself as he sat in one of the chairs, putting the bags of food on the table and pushing another empty chair up behind Sera so she'd sit down and maybe calm down some.

The afternoon passed quickly and they all decided to 'close shop' as Shadow put it just after nightfall. They all returned to the hotel and found the few bishis that had remained inside all lounging around, supremely bored.

"Belle!" Nyx yelled from across the room, unable to get up because Lucifer was sitting on him. "Help!"

Belle grinned evilly. "Hmm… To help or not to help…?"

"I say no," Sera said. "He didn't come see us once all day."

"That is true." Belle smirked. "No it is then."

"What?!" Nyx's yelp made both sisters snicker and Sera, who by this time felt much more comfortable with D'Alerian, turned and grabbed the sleep god's hand as well as Kenshin's hand, towing them both into Anna's room with her to set up a movie.

"Sorry, love," Belle said calmly. "But you didn't come visit me once all day." She pouted at him before she went and picked up Rae, going to play with him.

Nyx whined and tried to shove Lucifer off. However, the laughing bishi didn't move, too amused.

"Movie's ready!" Sera yelled, knowing that people would inevitably flock in to watch. She was right; though Belle didn't emerge, Shadow, Anna, and Kate all did, with some of their bishis.

Sera spent the rest of the night there except to bounce off to go get dinner for everyone. Kenshin and Kurama followed her to make sure she didn't do anything too stupid; she was still hyper, after all. Everyone suspected Anna was giving her sugar.

When Sera returned with dinner, there was the usual horde of people trying to get food all at once. So Sera managed to snag two plates of food and went to go eat with Belle.

"How do you feel?" Sera asked softly, looking over at her sister.

"Alright. A little tired," Belle admitted from where she was sitting on the bed with Raenef in her lap and Sylvana laying next to her. Both were asleep, the puppy snoring softly.

"Okay other than that?" Sera moved closer to her, pulling her feet out of the way as Nyx and Lucifer rolled past them, wrestling.

"Yup." Belle smiled and stayed where she was. "Having fun watching these two idiots."

Sera snickered. "Yeah," she agreed. "They are amusing."

Belle grinned as Lucifer tackled Nyx to the ground, making the other yelp. "Very."

Sera sneezed suddenly and blinked a few times, her eyes wide. Belle couldn't help but laugh.

However, both girls blinked when Sera sneezed twice more. Groaning softly, Sera flopped over on the bed. "Stupid nose…" she muttered.

Belle laughed quietly. "Go watch movies," she said. "I'll be in shortly."

Sera nodded and left, going to go finish the movies with the rest of them. Belle came in and sat next to her ten minutes later, and they all spent the rest of the night alternately watching movies and watching the small scuffles and wrestling going on between various bishis.

Sera went to bed early, just after midnight, and she was asleep within minutes. Kenshin glared at the others every time they got too loud, sitting next to Sera's bed and making sure the others didn't wake her up. However, the youngest trainer only shifted a few times in her sleep when they got too noisy, and a few hours later everyone else had gone to sleep as well.

Groaning softly, Sera opened her eyes blearily at the ungodly hour of 5 am, feeling much too warm. She managed to kick the sheets most of the way off her and, when she was still too warm, she kicked them all the way off. Her last kick, however, hit something a lot harder than blanket, and there was a muffled yelp as Thomas received a sharp kick in the shins. Then Sera rolled over and shoved him entirely off her bed, along with the blankets, before she took a simple sheet and huddled under it, trying to go to sleep again. Thomas sat up and looked at her, now awake after having been dumped off the bed.

Sera coughed a few times and rolled over again, trying to get comfortable. Thomas moved over to the other side of the bed and tentatively pressed his hand to her forehead. Sera shivered a little and pressed her head into his nice cool hand, and Thomas frowned before he went over to Anna's room, searching through the PD rooms before he found the vampire he wanted.

Half-dragging Eric out of his room and ignoring the blonde's muffled curses, Thomas dragged him back into the other room.

"Go lay down next to Sera," Thomas ordered in a whisper.

"Why?" Eric demanded with a growl, though he, too, kept his voice low.

"She has a fever." Thomas glared at Eric.

Eric wavered for a few moments. "Fine." Though he didn't know Sera all that well, he knew that Anna would want him to help her. Besides, he was awake again now anyway, and he had the feeling the dark-haired vampire in front of him wouldn't let him go back to sleep unless he did as he was told. So he walked over and slid in next to Sera.

Almost instantly Sera pushed herself into the nice, giant ice pack, and Eric nearly gasped at the heat she was radiating. He couldn't help but shiver before he forced himself to relax and closed his eyes. Oh he was going to kill Thomas for this later…

Four hours later Belle yawned loudly as she woke up, stretching out. Most everyone else was still asleep, so she got up and went to go make breakfast, only to find Eclipse already in there with Acheron playing with Rae, keeping the chibi distracted. Chuckling to herself, Belle went to go wake Sera instead. She paused when she was Eric in her bed and frowned a little before leaning over to shake Sera's shoulder.

"Sera? Sweetie, wake up."

Sera groaned and buried her face in Eric's neck. "Go 'way…" she mumbled sleepily.

"She has a cold," Thomas said from behind her. "She woke me up at five this morning when she kicked me off the bed."

"When did you get on her bed?" Belle frowned.

"About 1," Thomas replied calmly.

"And when did he get on her bed?" Belle pointed at the blonde vampire who was currently dead asleep.

"Just after five when she woke me up and I noticed she had a fever. He makes a better ice pack than I do." Thomas grinned.

Belle shook her head. "You really are smarter than we give you credit for aren't you?" She grinned.

"Hey!" Thomas pouted.

Sera stirred at the loud protest, rolling over in her sleep and trying to kick the sheet off. She almost kicked Eric off with it.

"Nyx," Belle said, turning to her lover. The half bishi merely groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore her. "Nyx, love." She moved and sat next to him, and he sighed before he lifted his head. "Go lay next to Sera. Please."

Nyx looked at her for a moment. "Why?"

"She's sick. She has a fever." Belle was still looking down at him. She didn't try to pull any of her normal pouty faces or big teary eyes on him. She just looked at him.

Nyx got up almost immediately, kissing her cheek, and went over to settle down on Sera's other side, keeping her cool. When Sera buried herself against him, he hissed. "Holy Hell she's really hot," he grumbled, pushing her hair back out of her face. He managed to find a hair band and pulled Sera's hair into a ponytail, keeping it out of the way. Sera let out a content little sigh, buried her face against his neck, and managed to go back to sleep.

Belle just barely made it into the kitchen before Eclipse looked at her with a slight frown.

"I'll have the others go get medicine," he said softly, ladling pancakes onto plates and holding one plate for his son. He sat down just inside the kitchen and pulled Rae into his lap, settling in there and letting the chibi eat from the plate he held. "I'll stay here."

Belle nodded and took a plate as well, sitting with Eclipse to eat her own pancakes. She kept one eye on the other room as bishis started to wake up, and when more than five of them were awake at one time they tended to get noisy.

Kenshin was the first of Sera's to wake up, and the moment he did he looked around for his trainer. When he didn't see her already up and about, he got up and checked her bed. He froze when he saw her sandwiched between the vampire and the half-bishi, half-way to trying to use Nyx as a bed. Frowning, Kenshin half-turned to find Belle approaching quietly.

"She's sick," Belle said softly, looking down at her younger sister before looking at Kenshin. The red-head nodded once, his eyes moving back to his trainer invariably. "She'll be fine. It's probably just a cold or the flu or something." Belle shrugged a little. "I'm going to send someone to get her medicine, probably Yoko or Kuronue."

"Send Kurama," Kenshin said softly, gently moving a few strands of hair from Sera's face. "He should like that, that he should."

Belle nodded and touched his shoulder gently, comfortingly, before she went to go find the other red-head and give him his marching orders for the morning.

By the time Anna, Shadow, and Kate had all emerged and were ready for lunch and business, they (and their bishis) were getting loud. Belle quelled them all with a glare.

"Hush," she ordered them all, Acheron a silent force behind her threatening to enforce her words with force if necessary. "Sera's sick and asleep."

All three females' lips moved into a silent 'o' of comprehension.

"Is she okay?" Anna asked, frowning a little.

"She'll be fine," Belle said. "I sent Kurama out a few minutes ago to get things for her. Just keep it down. She needs her sleep."

The three all nodded and sent Kate, as the least likely to be loud and noisy, to gather up all the bishis that wanted to go help the business. Even more than usual volunteered themselves for the day; apparently several wanted to get out of the hotel and away from Belle's imminent wrath.

"Hey, how come we don't just take her to the hospital to be checked out?" Shadow asked as she stood in the doorway. "Couldn't hurt, right?"

Belle went rigid and turned her glare of imminent wrath and pain on Shadow. "No hospitals," she said. "Period."

"Sure, sure," Shadow quickly said, backing away hurriedly. She led the others down the stairs and outside, a small stampede getting away from the three rooms and the sick trainer and, even worse, her pissy sister.

Belle sighed and ran a hand through her hair before she pulled it back in a bun and went around organizing the remaining bishis. Acheron and D'Alerian were set to helping Eclipse with whatever he needed, including watching over Raenef, while most of the rest of the bishis were set to cleaning all the hotel rooms, bathrooms, everything. Belle herself did the dishes, which had been stacking up, and then grabbed Duzell, Thomas, and Solin to go shopping with her. Solin growled at her back but followed her none the less.

Sera opened her eyes blearily at noon, blinking a few times when she felt two bodies packed in around her, making her shiver. She searched for blankets, finding she had none, and tried to sit up to get some.

"Sera-dono?"

The concerned voice made Sera blink and look around, trying to pinpoint it. Her eyes fell on Kenshin and she managed a smile. "Hey." She coughed a few times, her hand automatically covering her mouth, trying to dull the sound.

"You're sick," Kenshin said, gently pushing her back to lie on her back and pressing a cool, damp washcloth to her forehead.

"I noticed." Sera coughed again as she dredged up the driest tone she could manage. Kenshin chuckled as he got the intention, even though her voice hadn't quite gotten the dry tone very well.

"Kurama is getting you medicine, that he is," Kenshin said softly, keeping his eyes focused on her. "He'll be back soon."

The door opened and Kurama stepped in cautiously, looking around. When he didn't see Belle waiting to pounce on him or anything, he walked over to the bed.

"Well, speak of the devil," Sera said with a wracking cough.

Kurama raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of me, were you?" he asked mildly as he knelt down next to the bed and opened a plastic bag, fishing out the medicine he wanted. "Sit up for a minute, dear."

Sera struggled to comply, and Kenshin put his hands behind her to help her up. Kurama gave her two pills and a cup of water to chase them down with. Sera drank half of the water before she leaned back against Kenshin's hands, wanting to lay down again. The two red-heads exchanged worried glances before they let her, watching as she curled up between the two cold-skinned males, shivering a little. Kenshin draped a blanket over her carefully, making sure it covered her, and watched as she quickly drifted off again.

Kurama shrugged a little and turned on the TV, keeping the volume low. "She'll probably be out for a while," he said softly. "Sick people sleep a lot, and she definitely counts as a sickie right now."

Kenshin sighed and sat next to the bed, leaning back against the side of it so he'd be right there if Sera needed anything or woke up or anything. He let his eyes slide half-closed as he let his mind wander, not paying attention to any of the rest of them but his trainer.

Belle got back nearly two hours later, smirking. Solin was following her silently, his eyes on a bag in her hand.

"Woman," he growled, his eyes narrowing as Belle kept the bag to herself. "You agreed."

"Did I?" Belle asked mildly, a wickedly amused glint in her eyes. "I don't recall agreeing to anything, Solin. I did say that I _might_ give you these if you behaved. However, since you're always so surly and you refuse to listen to me…" She turned away from him and, bag handle now looped securely around her wrist, went into the kitchen.

Solin growled and stalked after her, leaving Duzell and Thomas to put the few things they'd actually gotten away. Mostly they'd just done laundry, which had been piling up at an appalling rate, and got more food and necessary things like that.

"Think he'll ask nicely?" Thomas murmured to Duzell with a grin.

"Not a chance," the other vampire replied with a grin just as wicked as Thomas's. "This is going to be fun…"

"I didn't kill anyone," Solin said impatiently, following Belle around the kitchen. "I didn't even zap anyone. Or threaten to, even. What more do you want from me?"

Belle paused, keeping herself between him and the bag. "Hmm. That's true. This is _you_ we're talking about here…" Suddenly she grinned. "I suppose it would be asking too much to get you to go around wearing a frilly pink tutu with bunny ears…"

Solin's eye twitced. Once. Eyes glowing faintly, he growled in wordless reply that was easily translated: NO!

"Oh, fine," Belle said with an amused smile. "But you have to be nice. Well, nicer. Nice for you. Got it?"

Solin nodded, his eyes on the bag again.

"Alright then. Here you go." Belle held out the bag after removing it from her wrist. A moment later it was gone, snatched up by Solin. He immediately left, going into his PD room again.

"What the bloody Hell?" Lucifer blinked from his place at the table playing poker with some of the others.

Belle grinned. "I got him candy. Apparently he has a sweet tooth, for certain things anyway."

Lucifer snorted and rolled his eyes, going back to his poker game with little interest in the half-god. D'Alerian, on the other hand, raised his eyebrows before he smirked faintly. He'd have to put that information to good use… later.

By the time Belle, Thomas, and Duzell had gotten everything put away and were relaxing in various places, some of the vamps were getting up. Or, at least, Eric tried to. He moved to get up, rolling over to get off the bed, and nearly jumped off the bed when a warm body immediately used his nice cold back as an ice pack. Swearing violently in Norse, he turned his head to demand to know what was going on.

"What in the name of—"

"Hush!" Belle flapped her hands at him to get him to shut up. "Sera's sick and you're still being used as an ice pack. Now either shut up and lay down again or switch off with someone else."

Eric glared briefly at Belle before he got up carefully, going to go warm up two bottles of blood. He was feeling rather hungry; waking up to a warm human body pressed against him was not exactly his ideal way of keeping his fangs out of people's necks. Unless, of course, they consented. Which just made life so much more fun…

Nyx yawned and stretched before he rolled over and grabbed Sera sleepily, pulling her close to his chest to cuddle with her. When he heard a snicker from someone (he suspected Lucifer or Thomas) he picked up a shoe and threw it with deadly accuracy at the offender. There was a yelp, a muted curse, and then silence again.

"Hey," Belle said softly, smiling at him and moving over to perch on the edge of the bed.

"Mmm." That was about as intelligent as Nyx got when he'd just woken up.

"Comfy?" Her lips stretched into an amused smile but she kept her laughter to herself with a little effort. He wouldn't have thrown a shoe at her anyway, but she made the effort all the same.

"Wish it was you," Nyx murmured, shivering as Sera tucked her head under his chin.

"I know, love," Belle said with a little smile. "I appreciate this, though. It helps her too."

"I know." Nyx shifted a little and kept his arms wrapped loosely around the younger. "She smells a little like you. It's nice. After you get past the sick smell, anyway."

Belle laughed quietly, stroking his hair gently. "Of course, love," she murmured. "She'll probably be mortified when she wakes up, so be prepared."

"Already am." Nyx tilted his chin up and Belle acquiesced, leaning down and giving him a quick kiss and a smile before she went to go get dinner with Eclipse, Rae, and Acheron.

Meanwhile, Anna, Shadow, and Kate were enjoying the rewards of having some of the night-dwellers out. Shadow's Eric was out, along with Al (though he had protested vehemently) and a few of the Dark-Hunters. Since the Dark-Hunters were harder to catch and not often seen and even more rarely shared for others to glomp, they were making a killing. The three exchanged grins as another trainer attempted to tackle Julian, who stood there with a tolerant half-smile. Even though he wasn't a Dark-Hunter, he was just as popular. Something to do with being the son of the Goddess of Love, maybe?

Belle wandered over to them, grinning. "You three seem to be having fun," she said by way of greeting, perching on the edge of the table. "I'm about to go get dinner for the lot of us. You guys want to head back to the hotel and meet me there?"

"Sure!" Shadow said enthusiastically, getting up.

"Is Sera better?" Anna asked, getting up as well and leaving Kate to manage the last few trainers.

"Not really," Belle said after a moment. "But she's been sleeping all day, and I think her temperature is closer to normal now. So we'll still be quiet, but not quite like you're in the middle of a funeral or anything."

Kate snickered and picked up the jars with all the money in them. "Alright, let's go get dinner," she said enthusiastically as the vast majority of the bishis went back to their balls to hide for a while. Only Julian was man enough to stay out.

Belle grinned and led the way to the nearest Italian place, ordering enough food for all of them and getting some soup for Sera as well. She'd have preferred to make chicken noodle from scratch, but oh well. This would have to do.

By the time they got back, Sera was sitting up and leaning back against the headboard. Pillows had been placed behind her for her comfort, and Nyx sat next to her on the bed still while Kenshin hovered over her worriedly. All of them looked up when the group entered and Sera managed a smile.

"I smell food," she said.

"I got you soup," Belle said, immediately walking over to her.

"I better get used to the smell of food first," Sera muttered. "Before I throw up."

Belle smoothed her hair back. "We'll go eat in the other rooms, okay? You'll have this room all to yourself, along with whoever wants to stay in here with you."

Sera nodded and Belle kissed her forehead briefly before she shepherded everyone into Anna's room to eat and watch movies and such. Nyx switched off with Duzell, following Belle into the other room. That left Sera in the bedroom with Kenshin, Kurama, Duzell, and a few others who either didn't want to go brave through the mob to get food or were just too lazy to.

"Kenshin?" Sera's lips barely moved, but the swordsman heard her all the same.

"Yes, Sera-dono?" Kenshin crouched down so he was level with her.

"I hate being sick." She managed a little grimace. "Can I have some water?"

"Of course, Sera-dono." Kenshin got up and got her a glass of water, returning to her and sitting on the edge of the bed as she drank in little sips, grimacing a little at the taste in her mouth. When she handed him the glass again, he simply put it on the bedside table and stayed where he was, making sure she was alright and didn't need anything else.

Belle came in an hour later to check on Sera and found her nestled between Duzell and Kenshin, watching TV with a sleepy little smile. Chuckling to herself, Belle walked over.

"Want your soup yet?" Belle asked, leaning down a bit and keeping out of Sera's view of the TV.

"Mmhm." Sera grinned as she watched a maniac with a gun, a huge truck, and make-up all over his face fall out of aforementioned truck. "He's funny."

Kenshin shot Belle a rather worried look but found Belle laughing as well. At that, he sighed and gave up; that kind of weirdness must be familial. Oh well.

Sera slurped down half a bowl of soup before she set it aside and settled down in bed again. Before the movie had even ended, her eyes had slipped closed, her breathing evened out, and she was out like a light. Kenshin moved her gently so she was laying down, settling in on one side of her while Duzell got Shadow's Eric to take a turn next to the "human heat pack". Duzell went to remind the others to keep it quiet, as Sera had just fallen asleep. And through all that, dreams swirled bright, vivid, and feverish in Sera's mind, ignored by the rest of the world but capturing her whole attention.

At least, of course, until she woke up screaming. Then she got a lot of attention, and the dreams slipped away while she struggled in bed, trying to escape some imagined threat. Or was it?


End file.
